Not Such a Bad Idea after all
by superboetti
Summary: House meets a woman at speed-dating. Can he make it work someone new? House/OFC. Rating may change later
1. Chapter 1

Not Such a Bad Idea After All

_Well this is kind of boring, _he thought. He had been at the speed-dating thing for over an hour and one lame woman after another sat in front of him. And when he finally thought that he had a great woman in front of him, she suddenly tells him she worshipped the devil. _How desperate am I to let Wilson drag me to this? _

He was currently sitting in front of a very young girl. She was young enough to be his daughter. He wasn't even listening to her. If something was going to happen between him and her, it was only going to be a one time thing and he didn't want that. He was finally somewhere in his life, where he wanted something serious. But right now it didn't look promising.

"… So that's when I thought it would be great idea to color my hair blond…" House was nodding giving her he illusion that he was indeed listening. He glanced at his watch and saw only two more minuets to go.

He looked to the next table where Wilson was sitting with the puzzle lady. Should he tell him that she was lying her through all of this? He decided against it, because Wilson had put up with enough of his shit.

And there was the sound he had been waiting for "The time is up! Men please move for the final time to the next table!"

_Thank God for that. This was a very bad idea! _He stood up without saying anything to Maggie, Mel he knew it was something with an m. He went to his final table which was right behind him.

It was occupied by a beautiful redheaded woman in what he guessed her late 30's. Although she looked young her stunning green eyes gave her away. She was wearing a simple yet elegant red v-neck sweater. The red color suited her perfectly it seemed to give her some kind of sparkle which lit up her whole face. Maybe he would turn on his charm for her a little bit.

"Hi I'm Greg." And then he did something he hadn't done to all the other women. He stretched hid hand out for her to shake.

She looked him up and down. And her eyes seemed to linger on something. He followed her eyes and knew she was looking at his cane. The anger was rising in him and he was ready to leave right this minuet. He had wasted his some of his charm which he needed in case he wanted something from Wilson of Cuddy.

Finally she seemed to come to her senses and extracted her hand to meet his. Which to his surprise was very soft.

"Hi I'm Annette." And again he was surprised with an accent he'd never heard before.

"That's an interesting accent you've got there. Where're you from?" He asked as he took a seat.

"I'm from Denmark. I moved here 6 months ago and some of my friends dragged me here." He liked the accent. It was kind of a cross between German and English.

"Denmark, huh? I thought all the women there were blond and very tall." He smirked at her.

"Ah, you're thinking of Brigitte Nielsen in Beverly Hills Cop. Let me tell you something not all of us Danes are blond. But I should also tell you that my mom is from France." She said return the smirk.

"Can you blame me for assuming you all look alike? There can't be that many people in Denmark!" He smiles for the first time that evening. And it's also his first smile in a very long time.

"Well, you're right about that. But at least I get the feeling you know where Denmark is. The last guy thought is some tropical island near India. He was a real moron." He looks to his left and to his surprise the last guy turned out to be Chase.

"Oh, yeah him. Sometimes I don't even know why I re-hired him." He mumbles and is a bit embarrassed that he knows that guy.

"Re-hired? What are you talking about?" He tells her about his job and that Chase works for him. He his surprised that he doesn't tell her lie. He is also staring deep into her eyes, he's never seen eyes so green.

"Maybe you should re-fire him. Don't you have to be smart to be a doctor?" She smiles which seems to light up her whole face and if possible her eyes turn even greener.

"Well what can I say, sometimes you hire the wrong people." He didn't want to get into to much of his personal life just yet. Maybe she didn't even like him.

"That's true, but that doesn't explain why did hire him again."

"Ladies and Gentlemen the time is up. If the ladies would be so kind to come to this table."

"Saved by a woman. Never thought I would say that one day." She laughed at him, which wasn't much of a laugh more like music to his ears.

And like in a flash she was gone. Didn't even say bye or anything. Now he really felt like he had used his charm to much. But at least he smiled today.

"So did you meet anyone interesting?" Wilson asked as he handed House a beer while they waited for the women to leave the table. It looked like they were filling out cards.

House didn't answer him like so often before. "I did hear that last women laugh at something you said." That got his attention though and he turned to face Wilson. His look softened a bit at the mention of what Wilson has just said to him.

"Aha, so you did meet someone interesting." He said with a smug smile on his face.

"All right men, now it's your turn to come to the table." Again he was saved by the same woman, at least he had some luck in his life.

"All right gentlemen you each get a card where you write the numbers of the woman you're interested in and leave your phone number or email or whatever you feel is appropriate. Then you will give your card to me and I'll give you the cards the women have filled out. And who knows maybe you'll find your perfect woman right here." The woman explained happily and it was driving him mad. He hated happy people. She was probably just as miserable as everybody else here.

And that's when it suddenly hit him he didn't know which number Annette had been. Normally he was pretty good with numbers, but he had been to distracted by her stunning green eyes that he hadn't looked at her number.

"Excuse me," he asked the sickening happy woman "I was wondering if you could help me. I forgot the number of one woman. Her name is Annette, she has green eyes and is wearing a red v-neck sweater." He explained with a smile. Hoping his smile was big enough for her to help him.

She gave him the number and House scribbled his cell phone number on the card.

"All right if you're done you can get the cards from the women who were interested in you and then you're free to go."

He gave her the card, he only had one. And she handed him 3 cards. He didn't want to look at them yet, he wanted to wait till he was alone.

"All right guys I'm heading home. See you there Wilson." And with that he left.

On the way home he wondered if Annette was one of the 3 women interested in him, he also wondered who the other 2 were. He certainly hadn't noticed any other women.

When he got home, he went straight to his bedroom and took the cards out of his pocket. The first woman was Gabrielle, he had no clue who that was. The next one was what he believed the m-girl, how could she have thought he was interested was beyond him. Maybe he shouldn't have nodded as much as he did. And his face turned into a full blown smile the last one was indeed Annette. He even found out that her last name was Nielsen. He chuckled a bit at that.

Now all he had to do was get enough courage to give her a call. Was he ready to go on a date? Did he want to go on a date? Maybe he should talk to Nolan about this in his next session on Thursday.

Maybe this speed-dating thing wasn't such a bad idea after all.


	2. Chapter 2

Not Such a Bad Idea after All

Chapter 2

"Sorry, I'm a bit late. Traffic was really crazy." House apologized, which got the attention of Dr. Nolan right away.

"You're apologizing; you've never done that before. That's either very good or very bad. Mmmh, lets see what you've told me last week." He said, as he went through his notes. And that's when it hit him.

"You've met someone at the speed-dating thing, didn't you?" He said smiling in triumph.

"Well," House said smirking at how Nolan could read him like an open book. "We did meet for 5 minuets and then the event was over and she was gone. But I left her my number and she left me hers."

"Yes and?"

"And what? Nothing. I haven't called her. Don't know if I even should." He answered quietly, while looking down at his hands. And that's when Nolan knew something was wrong.

House was afraid to call her. Scared that she would turn him down. He knew he wouldn't be able to handle that. But she hadn't called him either. And that's what was stopping him form calling her. After 3 days she hadn't called, maybe she realized that she had made a mistake giving him her number.

"Why shouldn't you call her? What are you afraid of?"

"You know damn well what I'm afraid of. And I don't need to hear you say it." House warned. Sometimes it was a bit disturbing that both doctor and patient knew each other so well.

"At least you made a connection with somebody new. Were there some other interesting women?"

"Made a connection? A 5 minuet talk is _not_ a connection. If that qualifies as a connection then I made one too with the cashier at the drugstore last week." Again he knew what Nolan was trying to do. But he was not in the mood today to give in. Sometimes he wishes he could just say what was on his mind, but that just wasn't him.

"Maybe you did, I don't know. Let's talk about something else then. How was your week?"

He talked about the case. And how the patient in the end chose what her boyfriend wanted. "Why would she do something that would cause her to have another operation in some years later, just to please him?" It had been on his mind the whole time. He wouldn't have done that, just to please someone else.

"A relationship or a friendship is based on sometimes giving the other person what they want, even though there isn't an upside for you. Tell me why you were in the observation room, when Wilson was giving a piece of his liver?"

And before House could stop himself, he answered: "Because he wanted me to."

Nolan knew now that he could push House a little bit. "So why don't you call her, you've got nothing to loose. And if you still need to make a connection you could always go back to cashier at the drugstore." Nolan finished with a smirk.

House had just finished reading a very interesting article, about a boy with 3 functioning kidneys and was now getting ready to head to bed. For some reason he was tired today. Who was he kidding he knew why he was so tired today; he couldn't stop thinking about Annette. Why hadn't she called him and why hadn't he called her? It was driving him crazy.

Should he swallow his own pride and just call her?

He decided against it. It was getting late, she probably didn't like it if he called so late, maybe he should call tomorrow. _God I'm acting like a teenager_ he thought, as he looked himself in the mirror while brushing his teeth. _That's it I'm calling her now._

He was punching in the numbers very fast and now all he had to do was press the call button, but for some reason his finger didn't quite have the same idea. He stood there for seemed like hours. Until finally shook his head and pressed the call button.

It was ringing on the other end of the line for what seemed like minuets, but in reality only was a couple of seconds. And that's when he heard that beautiful Danish accent again saying:

"Hello?"


	3. Chapter 3

House stood there paralyzed, he hadn't thought of what to say to her.

"Hello? Who's this?"

"Um, hi this is Greg from the speed-dating thing."

"Oh hi, I was wondering when you would call." She said with a smile, which he could hear in her voice. It relaxed him a bit; it showed that she was aware of that she could've called him sooner.

"Me? Why do women always assume that we men have to make the first move?" He said with a smile, it was nice to hear her voice again.

"Yeah, sorry about that but my dog ate the card with your number." He could hear the sarcasm in her tone.

"Uh, great deflection there. I like that." _Holy shit, am I flirting with her? _It had been a while he wasn't quite sure. He hadn't even flirted with her at the speed-date.

"You still there?" She asked, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Yeah sorry" Again he was apologizing, what's with today?

"So why are you calling?"

He chuckled "Like you don't know"

She laughed, which did melt him a bit. "Mmmh, you're calling to tell me you fired your employee?"

"Good guess, but no. And this is probably going to shock you, I'm calling to ask you if you would like to have a drink with me or maybe watch a movie with me tomorrow night?" He asked and for the second time he was nervous. This was what he dreaded, what if she said no?

"Yeah I'd love to. I just have to see if I'm free tomorrow night. Otherwise we could meet on Saturday."

"Yeah sure, if Saturday is better for you. I don't really care. My therapist says I just have to meet you." The last part slipped out of House's mouth before he could stop himself.

"Therapist huh?"

"Yeah I didn't mean to tell you that just yet. Um, are you sure you still want to meet me?" His heart was pounding in his chest.

"Don't worry I'm sure I have some stuff that would shock you too." He relaxed visibly, but was curious of that other stuff was she mentioned. "Well anyway I'm free tomorrow night, so let's meet at the cinema on 30th street and there's a bar right across it, so we could do both."

"Yeah that sounds great. So I'll meet in front of the movies at 7:30?"

"Yeah, I'm looking forward to see you again." And with that she was gone. He knew now what people felt like when hung up before they could say something and it wasn't a nice feeling. But he also smiles, because he couldn't wait to see her either.

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Later that night Wilson and House had just finished eating their dinner, when House decided to tell Wilson about tomorrow.

"So what are your plans for tomorrow? It's Friday you got a date?" House asked even though he knew that would be spending the night at the hospital, because of a patient that needed to hold Wilsons hand.

"I have to go to work. So you can spend the whole night with your porn-collection!"

"No need for that. I've got a hot babe waiting for me." House said waiting for Wilson to give him a lecture about inviting hookers to the loft.

"What?" His voice rising a bit "I told I don't want one of your hookers here."

"What's the problem? You're not going to be here." It was fun to see the annoyed face that stared at House right now, it was very hard not for him to smirk.

"I don't care. This is my loft and I don't want your hookers here."

"Oh relax. Actually I've got a date." With that said House limped to the kitchen and started to put their dishes in the dishwasher.

"You've got… Seriously?" Wilson asked him following him into the kitchen.

"Yeah. You know the woman that laughed at me actually left me her number and I called her today." He said without looking at him, because he knew that Wilson was grinning like an idiot behind him.

"Well this is great… Where're you going?"

"Movies and drinks later."

"Great. Are you nervous?"

"A little…" Finally looking up at Wilson "But I'm tired of not having someone in my life. Now that Cuddy has moved on, I want to do the same."

Wilson was shocked to get an honest answer from House. But he was also happy for House that he finally could move on from Cuddy.

"Well I'm happy for you." And with that said Wilson left and went to his bedroom.

"Yeah me too." House said quietly to himself with a smile on his face.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Thank you for all the lovely reviews, it means a lot to me.**

"Oh there you are. You have to hurry; you only have 30 minutes to get ready." Wilson said as a greeting, while House hurried past him to his bedroom to shower and change.

10 minutes later he was standing in front of his closet holding a light blue shirt in his hands, which seemed to be ironed.

"Did you iron my shirt?" He asked Wilson as he entered the living room wearing only a towel around his waist.

"Yes I guessed you wanted to look good for this woman."

"You are such a girl… And why do you think I would want to wear the same shirt I wore when I took Cameron out to that disaster date?"

"I didn't know it was the same shirt." He continued with a smirk. "Didn't you say you burned that shirt?"

House rolled his eyes at him while he returned to his room. "Don't you dare tell me that you've got condoms for me as well?" He called over his shoulder and he knew it was Wilsons turn to roll his eyes.

After he trimmed his beard he got dressed and looked himself in the mirror, he really liked the shirt, which seemed to go well with his black jeans. He was also wearing his favorite orange and grey sneakers, now all he needed was to calm his nerves.

He looked at his watch and realized if he wanted to be there on time, which he actually did, he needed to leave now.

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_Great she is standing me up! _He had been waiting for her in over 20 minutes. He had bought the tickets already and he was beginning to feel like an idiot.

"There you are." Somebody called and he realized it was that beautiful accent, he turned and she was walking towards him.

She was wearing a light blue skirt, which showed her gorgeous long legs. She also wore a brown leatherjacket with something white underneath. Everything seemed to fit her body perfectly. She did have a great body with perfect curves and he first now realized that she was pretty tall, her forehead would reach his nose.

"Sorry I'm late, but I couldn't find a place to park. There was a motorcycle back there which took a whole parking space for itself and I had to park a whole block away."

"Yeah sorry about that, but I didn't see any other parking spaces for my bike."

"That was your bike?" She looked at him and he nodded. "Again I've to apologize; I didn't mean what I said. Sometimes it's better to just keep my mouth shut, it's not one of my good qualities I'm afraid." She said while biting her lip, clearly a sign that she was nervous about what he would say to her.

"Relax. At least you apologized, most people just give me the finger before I can defend myself."

She smiled at him "Well then let us forget what I said and watch the movie." While grabbing his hand and leading him to the snack bar. Her hand was very soft and for a moment he wanted to forget about the movie and just stand and hold her hand all evening.

They were in line for the snacks and for the first time in years House actually wanted to talk to someone.

"So, I've told you about my job, but I don't know anything about yours."

"Oh yeah that's right we didn't really talk that much about me." She said while ordering a bottle of water and some popcorn, he ordered a coke and the popcorn she ordered was big enough for two. "Well I teach European culture at the university."

"Really, how come I haven't seen around? I work at the teaching hospital."

"I started two months ago, I haven't really had time to walk around campus. But now that I know you're in the area I might just do that." He smiled down at her. _This is going well so far, _he thought.

"Yeah, maybe we could meet for lunch?" he asked while taking his coke and slowly they walked to their seats.

She looked at him and asked with an adorable chuckle. "Are you asking me on a second date?"

"No" he answered with sarcasm in his voice. "That would be idiotic of me; we haven't even really started the first one." He was also a bit embarrassed about what he had said to her. That was one of his problems with relationships, when he fell for someone he always fell hard. His whole relationship with Stacy proved that. _Did I just say fall for someone? Oh, I'm in big trouble._

"I would love to have lunch with you sometime." He breathed a sigh of relief.

"I have to ask you something though it has been bugging me for a while now," she continued while they took a seat next to each other. "How come you're still single?"

He groaned internally, should he tell her the truth or should he lie. If he lied then he would defiantly never see her again. He sighed again and came to the conclusion that he wanted to see her again, but was he ready to tell her about all of his problems?

"I've to tell you something about myself. Nearly a year ago-" He didn't get to finish as the movie started.

"Hmm, saved by a woman again." He said while grabbing some popcorn.

"Well you're not getting out of it this time. We're still going out for drinks after the movie, remember?" She said while smiling at him.

"Damn… This is going to be a long night, isn't it?" She just kept on smiling and focused her attention on the movie.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Thank you for the reviews! Keep 'em coming:D I'm so sorry for letting you wait this long.**

"So what did you think of the movie?" He asked her while they were waiting for the other people to leave.

He hadn't really paid that much attention to the movie, he had been bored half way through to be exact. But he did spend the rest of the time watching her watching the movie. And it was worth every minute of it. She really was a vision, every time he turned and watched her his breath caught in his throat just a little bit more, he was quite taken by her already. _I really am in trouble,_ he thought to himself.

"Well it wasn't a bad movie, but it wasn't a great one either. It was one of those you can only watch once."

"Yeah." He said even though he had no idea what she was talking about. "So let's go to the bar, you wanted to grill me for information if I remember correctly."

She just laughed at him and gave him playful slap on his arm. He soon realized that he didn't mind that Annette wanted to know stuff about him. He also realized that if he wanted their relationship to work he had to tell her all of that stuff, even if it was hard for him talk about that stuff.

The bar was just like Annette had said to him right across the street. It was dimly lit and it was decorated in a nautical theme. There were big and small models of ships placed in different places. They found a booth in a corner, so they could watch all the other people in the bar. House liked it very much and wondered why he never heard of this bar before.

"Have you been here before?" He asked as they sat next to each other.

"No. It actually looks exactly like my favorite bar back in Denmark."

"Really? So what part of Denmark are you from? I've read online that most of the people in Denmark live in Copenhagen, like 75% or something like that."

"Did a little research, did ya? That's true and yes I'm from Copenhagen. But let's not talk about me, you were going to tell me something right before the movie started."

"I was hoping you had forgotten all about that." He said while smiling at her, but he also dreaded to tell her, again he was afraid that she would just run away. The waitress came back and gave them their drinks.

"You're probably wondering why I walk with a cane…" And that's where he started telling her how he lost a fistful of his thigh muscle and how his and Stacy's relationship had ended because of what she did. He didn't want to look at her while he talked to her the last thing he wanted was to see the pity in her eyes. "That's why I haven't been with anybody for 15 years I'm better off alone, nobody should deal with my issues." He didn't tell her about his time in the loony bin, that was something he was saving for later.

"So what changed your mind? Why are you on a date with me?"

That question caught him of guard, why was he here? He knew of course, it was because he wanted to move on from Cuddy, but did he want to tell her that.

He looked up and what he saw in her eyes wasn't pity, no it was general curiosity. He was staring at her for a long time was he ready to move on, was he over Cuddy? The next thing he felt was her hand on his forearm, stroking him softly.

He took a shaking breath and answered very quietly while looking down at her hand "I don't want to be alone anymore." Had he just told her too much, was this possible relationship over before it even started? Her hand stopped stroking him and he held his breath and was ready for her rejection.

"Well, it's a good thing I'm here then isn't it?" She said to him very softly. Her answer took him by surprise again and all he could do was smile.

"So there's going to be a second date?" His shy moment over in a flash.

"I would like that very much." She returned his smile and continued stroking his forearm again. He took her hand and entwined them and laid their hands on his left thigh.

"Me too."

He ordered more drinks for them and they fell into pleasant conversation. It wasn't small talk, it was personal stuff about them. She told him about Denmark and about her job. He talked about living with Wilson and some of his weirdest patients and the idiots from the clinic. And he kept her hand in his all the time. He hadn't talked so much to anybody in a long time, it felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of his shoulders, he hadn't felt so relaxed in a long time.

That's why it surprised him when the bartender said they had to leave, because he had to close up the bar.

"Well I guess this is the end of this evening then. I'll walk you to your car." He paid for their drinks and helped her out of the booth. But instead of letting go of his hand she held onto it very tightly, so they left the bar hand in hand.

They reached the car after walking in complete silence, but they didn't mind. "So…" she said while turning around to face him "How about we meet for lunch on Monday and you can show me around on the campus?" She smiled and squeezed his hand.

"Yeah, that sounds like a great idea. But if I have a case, I might have to cancel." He said squeezing her hand in return.

"Oh okay, just call me if you have to cancel."

"Okay."

He slowly stepped closer to her and took her in his arms and held onto her very tightly. She laid her head on his shoulder and he could feel her sigh against his neck, which made him shiver just a bit.

They stood there holding onto each other for quite a while, but they didn't notice. He first noticed when his leg started to hurt a bit. "I should go my leg is starting to hurt."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"It's alright, it does hurt when I stand to long." He took her hand again and gave her a lingering kiss on the cheek.

"I actually don't want you to leave, but I don't want us to hurry into anything. I hope you understand." She told him while looking down into her purse, pretending to look for her car keys.

He laid his hand on top of hers and she stopped looking for her keys and looked up at him. "I do understand I actually want to see you again. I don't want it to be a one time thing." He told her seriously.

She was speechless, her eyes open wide.

He nodded. And they hugged again and she gave him a peck on his lips. He still had his eyes closed when he heard her car door close again. He opened his eyes and she smiled up at him. Again he nodded and he even smiled. She waved a final time and started the car and drove away.

While making his way back to his bike he thought about the night he just had. It might just be the best date he ever had. Oh, yes he defiantly would call her.


	6. Chapter 6

It had been the longest weekend of his live. Wilson kept annoying him with questions about his date and when he would see her again. He also asked if he was in love with her. In other words Wilson did drive him insane.

So he had spent as many hours of the weekend at the hospital doing his clinic hours as he could. He was hoping that he wouldn't have to do them on Monday. He was also hoping that he wouldn't get a case on Monday otherwise his lunch date with Annette would not happen.

When House set foot in the hospital Monday morning he was greeted by Cuddy who was holding a blue case file in her left hand.

"That better not be what I think it is?" He said instead of good morning.

"You can choose between clinic or a case." She said handing him the file and left for her office.

Now he had a case and for the first time in a long time since he didn't know when he wanted to leave that case to Foreman, no matter how interesting it turned out to be. But maybe he could make it up to Annette when he finished this case.

Later at 11 o'clock, he had just sent his team off to do some tests on the patient, when he dialed Annette's number.

"Hello?" She said and he could hear she answered with a smile, she probably had seen his number on the caller ID. He really hated that he was going to take that smile away from her.

"Hi… It's Greg. Is this a bad time?" He stalled, trying to figure out a way to tell her that he couldn't see her today.

"No not at all. I was actually wondering when you'd call."

"Well don't get your hopes up too high. I got a case this morning and I can't meet you for lunch." He said to her in a voice that didn't quite sound like his own.

"Oh that's a shame."

"I'm sorry."

"No that's alright. I just really wanted to see you again." She said that second part very quietly he almost didn't hear it.

"Me too." He replied just as quietly. She wanted to see him again, he couldn't really believe it. It had been a long time since people wanted to spend time with him, most of the time even Wilson didn't want to spend time with him.

"Listen I'm gonna call you when I know a little bit more about what I'm dealing with here and then I just tell you when I can see you again." He said after a few seconds of pleasant silent between them.

"Yeah, that sounds like a great idea." He could hear her smile was back again, which made him feel proud. He was able to set that smile on her face.

"Okay. You'll hear from me then."

"Okay."

Again they were quite. He could hear her breathing and strangely it didn't feel weird to him. Nearly 30 seconds passed before he said:

"Okay, I gotta go. Bye Annette..."

"Bye Greg"

He closed his phone and sank in his office chair and that's when he saw Thirteen standing in the door, smirking at him.

"So who's Annette?"

"Oh just some hooker I booked for today" He snapped at her.

"Right… Anyway here are the test results." She continued to smirk at him.

"Thanks. Now leave." He took the results and glared at her all the way out of his office.

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On Wednesday the case was running smoothly. He was hoping for a finished case by Friday. He had already an idea of what he and Annette could do for their next date. He just had to get Wilson out of the loft and find some time to go grocery shopping. But first he had to find something he wanted to cook for her.

On Thursday the case was solved and House was ready to head home and call Annette and invite her over for tomorrow night. He was still working on a plan to get Wilson out of the loft.

When he entered he heard Wilson talking in his cell phone. So House went to the kitchen to think of a plan whilst getting some orange juice.

"Hey, did you solve your case."

"Yeah"

Wilson took one look at him and knew he had something on his mind. "What do you want?" He asked.

"I… ah.. Need you to leave the loft tomorrow night. I'm… um… going to invite Annette over and cook for her." He stammered at first but then he just threw it out there, because he was going to get a lecture anyway from Wilson. He just wanted it over as fast as possible.

"Sure. Do you want me to book a hotel room too?"

"What? You're not gonna lecture me on how this is way too much for a second date? Or something else that is way too crazy for my mind to come up with." He asked while staring at him with his eyes wide open.

"No, if you want to invite her over you can do that. I don't care. " Wilson answered with a smile.

"Whatever. And no you don't have to get a room. It's way too soon for that to happen."

"Wow, you're serious about this woman, aren't you?"

House just nodded and limped slowly to his room. But before he closed the door he could hear Wilson say:

"Good for you."

House just rolled his eyes and took his cell out of his pocket.

He was a little bit nervous about calling her and inviting her over. What if it was too soon for them? Should he just take her out to some restaurant? He considered it while he dialed her number, but he just shook his head and waited for her on the other line.

"Hello?" Again he could hear that she was smiling when she answered.

"Hi, it's me."

"Hi me."

"Oh very funny. If you're in that kind of mood I won't invite you over for dinner tomorrow." He said while smiling, he liked that she was very sarcastic they seemed to have the same kind of humor. This for him was very important.

"Alright, I'll shut up now."

"Yeah, but before you do that, are you free tomorrow night to come over to my place at 7?"

"Yes I am. Just tell me the address and I'll be there." She said without hesitation. He told her the address and he told her the fastest way to get to the loft. Then he heard her doorbell ring for the second time.

"Are you expecting your other date?"

"Oh yeah, that's Rudolf I met him at the Northpole convention."

"Okay sounds like a fun date. Anyway you better go get that. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah see you tomorrow."


	7. Chapter 7

The next day House spends most of the day in the kitchen. He was going to make a classic Danish dinner, which is roasted pork with potatoes and gravy. And as dessert he had planned to make chocolate mousse.

"Could you keep an eye on the pork while I go shower and change." He didn't wait for Wilsons reply he just went right passed him to his room.

He had already figured what he wanted to wear. A red shirt, which he hadn't worn in a long time, with dark blue jeans. He was also going to trim his stubble shorter than usual.

It took him 20 minutes which is a very long time for him in the shower. He looked at his watch and saw it was 6:55 so he hurried out of his room to the kitchen where Wilson was stirring the gravy.

"Don't you have to leave? The patient is waiting for you." Although he knew that Wilson wanted to say hello to Annette before he left.

"Don't worry I have time." He looked at Wilson and rolled his eyes at him.

Meanwhile Annette was standing outside the door of the loft. She could hear two men talking to each other, one of the voices were Greg's the other one must be of his roommate.

She knocked on the door.

House limped slowly to the door. He realized that his heart was hammering in his chest, Wilson could probably hear it. For some reason his left hand was also shaking.

When he reached the door he waited before he opened it. Was he really ready to open up a woman? Could he really make it work and think of someone else for a change? He was in his thoughts for quite some time until the second round knocking of the door was bringing him out of them and he opened the door.

"Hi" She said when she saw him. Her smile did reach her eyes and he had made up his mind he was ready to open up to her, but he was going to take it slow. He didn't want to rush into things just like he did with Stacy.

"Hi" he helped her out of her coat and his eyes went wide when he saw what she was wearing. He had a good view of her beautiful neck, because she had her hair in a ponytail. All he wanted to do was burry is nose in her neck and inhale her vanilla scented perfume. Her upper body was covered in a tight white tank top, which showed her perfect shoulder blades. With the tank top she was wearing black jeans. They fitted her like a second skin and her ass was even better than Cuddy's. Her feet were covered in black boots. She really was a vision. What House did to deserve this he didn't know, but he was glad that she was here with him.

"When you're finished checking me out, maybe we could have dinner I'm starving." She said with a grin on her face.

"Sorry" He said shaking himself out of his thoughts.

"Don't be. It's great that I still have an effect on men."

He just smiled at her and took her hand to lead her into the kitchen. He had missed holding her hands, they were so soft. He wondered if the rest of her skin was just as soft. But he dismissed that thought again, he didn't want to get any ideas, he just wanted to enjoy her company tonight.

They entered the kitchen together, where Wilson was waiting for them. He looked at House with a smirk and then focused his attention on their entwined hands.

"Hi… you must be Annette, I'm House's roommate James Wilson."

"Nice to meet you." She didn't let go of his hand instead she just squeezed and ran her thump across his.

"Alright I'm leaving then. You be nice while Daddy is away." Wilson said as he picked up his overnight back up from the floor. House kept glaring at him until he heard the door close after Wilson.

"He wasn't that weird at the speed date." He looked down at Annette and could see her smiling. Relieved that Wilsons comment hadn't sent her running towards the hills; he led her to the table.

"Weird works for us."

"Oh really, should we bring him back?"

"Okay, that's enough out of you. Dinner should be ready."

The table was set beautifully with a white table cloth and candles. There even was a red rose on one of the plates.

"Just take a seat and I'll bring the dinner."

She took a seat at the place without the rose. She wanted him to give it to her. When House came he had figured out why she was sitting there, that caused him to smile. But he also realized now he had to give it to her, which made it more difficult for him. What was he going to say to her? Then he had an idea.

"Sorry about the rose. Wilson gave it to me, I just couldn't find a vase." He explained while placing the potatoes on the table.

"You probably should put it in water then." She handed him the rose, smirking at him mercilessly and not making it any easier for him.

After he had put the rose in water, he would give it to her later. He placed the rest of their dinner on the table and that was when she realized what he had done for dinner.

"Oh my God, you made a traditional Danish dinner!" She almost yelled at him. Her smile told him that she was very impressed, but at the same time he could see sadness in her eyes as well. He didn't want her to be sad. For the first time in his life House wanted to comfort somebody and make them feel better, but he didn't know how to do that.

"Yeah I hope you like it." He took a seat next to her and looked her deep in the eyes and very slowly he placed his left hand on hers "Are you okay?" Later he would be hitting himself for that question, he had never asked a person that and really meant it at the same time. "You looked upset for a moment there."

She looked down at the table and told him a very quiet voice "Yeah… I just… I miss my family. I miss my friends and it's not easy for me to be here all alone." He could hear her voice brake and he had to do something about that, he didn't want the date to end in absolute misery.

"I'm sorry. If I had known that this would make you sad I would've cooked something else."

Her head shut up and he could see the tears in her eyes. "No I'm sorry. I should've just kept my mouth shot. You went to through all the trouble preparing this dinner for me and now I've ruined everything."

"Oh shut up" he gently told her off "you didn't ruin anything. Let's just forget about it and enjoy dinner, okay?"

"Alright. It looks great by the way."

He just grinned at her and waited for her to taste.

"Ohhh my God this is amazing!" She moaned and he wondered if she sounded just same in the bedroom. That thought made him break into a smile which reached his eyes.

It did taste, even if House thought so himself, absolutely delicious. The dinner was enjoyed in silence, but it wasn't an awkward silence it was rather pleasant. After dinner they took their wine glasses and dessert to the couch, where House had planned to watch a movie with her.

"So what do you want to watch?"

"What about Die Hard or Lethal Weapon?"

House gasped at her suggestions "A woman after my own heart."

After he had put the movie in the DVD-player he took a seat next to her.

"This tastes even better than the pork. Where did you learn to cook?"

Now was his chance, he was only going to that cooking class because his leg hurt, he could tell her about Mayfield and why he had to live here with Wilson. But was he ready to share the dark part of his life? Was she ready to hear it or would she run away?


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Thank you for the reviews. And this is the longest chapter yet! **

"Greg are you okay?" Her question snapped him out of his thoughts and he had made his decision.

"You're probably wondering why I live with Wilson, when I easily can take care of myself." He looked at her and she nodded urging him on to continue. _Okay, here goes_ he thought before he started telling her about the hallucinations, his time at Mayfield and his time after. While he was telling her he looked down at his hands, it was easier to tell while not looking at her beautiful green eyes. "And we moved here so that Wilson could get out of his dead girlfriends apartment." He finished. He started rubbing his right thigh, out of habit, even though he wasn't in any pain. He looked up at her after a while, he was very nervous about her reaction.

Like at the bar she placed her hand on his forearm and stroked it gently. "I'm glad that you're honest with me. And it probably wasn't easy to tell me all of this." She told him quietly.

That was all she said, he had expected her to run to the door and out of his life, but she was still beside him.

"That's your reaction, you're not gonna run away and say this is too much for you?"

"Yeah this is my reaction. I'm not going to say that it didn't shock me, because it did. But at least you were honest with me. Do you know how hard it is to find somebody who is honest with you?"

She continued to stroke his forearm and he thought about what she had said to him. Could he really be that lucky to find somebody that finally understood his raw honest way?

"Thank you" was all he could say. He looked her deep in the eyes and leaned slowly closer. Their faces were only inches away from each other. House could feel her breathing and her eyes were greener than he ever thought they could be. He placed his hands slowly on her cheeks, he noticed that her skin was indeed very soft as he stroked it. When he stroked her lower lip, his breath caught in his throat when she kissed his thump.

He leaned in closer and gently replaced his thump with his lips. He was overwhelmed by the feeling of her soft lips, it had been a while since he had kissed anybody. It was hard for him to believe that such a simple act as kissing somebody would make him feel slightly less miserable. But he wasn't gonna tell her that, she didn't need to know that he thought so little of himself.

He kissed her upper lip softly and swiped his tongue across it, he felt her open her mouth to grant him access. He began exploring her mouth gently, he wanted to know every little spot in her mouth, what she liked and what she didn't like.

His hands had a little adventure of their own as they left her waist and gently made their way to her arms and ended on her shoulders.

He felt that her hands began exploring as well, he felt them softly stroking his thighs. But then suddenly she stopped, when she felt the ridges of his ugly scar. He needed to tell her that it didn't matter, that in fact her hands took a bit of his pain away. So he slowly ended the kiss and placed his forehead on hers, he opened his eyes and was startled as he saw her beautiful green eyes.

They were both breathing heavily. He breathed in when she breathed out and he could smell the wine and the dessert and he liked that. He didn't say anything for the longest time, but he knew had to take her shock over his scar away, but it was hard for him to figure out what to say to her. She was the one who broke the silence first.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to ruin the kiss." She said in a hoarse voice, he almost didn't hear what she said "I hope I didn't make you feel uncomfortable." She lowered her face and seemed to be fascinated with something on her hands. He had to do something he thought.

"Hey, look at me." He pleaded in a gentle voice it almost didn't sound like him. He waited until her green eyes focused on his blue "I'm an idiot… I should've told you how big the scar is. Yes I am in pain every day, but with ibuprofen I have it under control and it's way better than hallucinating."

"Did I hurt you?"

"No you didn't." He squeezed her shoulders to tell that she really hadn't "It actually helps to rub it." He took her hand and brought it back to his scar. She stroked it very softly, she was obviously still afraid that she was going to hurt him. So he took her hand again and showed her how much pressure she could use.

"So should we watch the rest of the movie?" She stopped rubbing his leg and looked up at him.

"Yeah let's do that." She turned to the screen. They were sitting very close together, so House reached out and put his arm around her. She smiled and snuggled closer to him, laying her head on his shoulder. He could feel her breathing on his neck and it sent a shiver down his spine. The movie was long forgotten for him, he was enjoying her so close to him. He finally had a woman who was willing to spend time with him and it felt great.

"I should probably leave. It's getting late." She said as the movie finished.

"Are you sure? You look pretty tired." He had seen she was fighting very hard not to close her eyes.

"I'll be alright."

"Sure? I don't mind if you spend the night here." He told her softly.

"I'm sure you don't" She smiled at him and he realized how what he had said sounded.

"That's not what I meant."

"I know. I don't want to step on any toes. What is your roommate going to say to this?"

"Forget about Wilson. And it's not his bed were going to sleep in."

She laughed "That would be fun though, wouldn't it?" Her face turned serious "Don't you think it's a bit too soon for me to be sleeping here?"

"Relax you're not getting in my pants today."

"Alright. I'll stay, but only because I'm really tired." He smiled and led her to his bedroom.

There wasn't much in his room, they had just moved and he hadn't been back at his place to get some of his stuff. So there only was a bed and a dresser and his guitars in the room.

"Okay, the bathroom is through that door" He pointed to the door on his left "And I'll give you one of my shirts to sleep in."

He found her a shirt and gave it to her, it was his Rolling Stones shirt. "There should be an extra toothbrush in the bathroom as well, just look in the drawer under the sink." She nodded and left for the bathroom.

He went back to the kitchen, because he still had to take his meds and finish the cleaning, he didn't want to get in trouble with Wilson again.

When he reached for a glass she walked back in the kitchen in nothing but his shirt. At the sight his breath caught in his throat. The light in the hall made her stand out like an angel and her legs looked even longer than they did before.

"Do you need any help with the clean up?" he didn't answer her, he just kept staring at her with his mouth open. If his mouth wouldn't have been so damn dry he probably would've drooled all over his own shirt.

"Greg?"

"What? Sorry, did you say something?" She just chuckled and handed him the plates so he could put them in the dishwasher.

"I was just going to take my pills."

"Oh, I'll do it then." She put their plates and wine glasses in the dishwasher. It was hard for him to focus on taking his pills, because each time she bend over to put something in the dishwasher he could see a little bit of her black panties. So he had to turn around and think of a naked Wilson, so he could take his pills without having a coughing fit. But he had to comment on that, he just couldn't help himself.

"You look really good in my shirt." He still had his back to her, so she couldn't see her smiling over to him.

"Do I?" she stepped closer to him and embraced him from behind. Her arms on his belly and her head between his shoulder blades, where he could feel her take a deep breath and all he could do was close his eyes and enjoy the sensation of her this close to him.

"I even think you look better than I ever did in that shirt." She smiled so wide even he could feel it through his shirt.

"Come on, let's go to bed."

He turned around and had his hands on her hips and a big smile on his face "Really?"

"Not like that, silly!" She slapped him playfully on the chest and he his smile turned even bigger "I'm really tired." She then told him seriously.

"I know you are. You almost fell asleep while we were watching the movie. And let me tell you not many people fall asleep during one of Bruce Willis' best movies."

"I'm going to bed then."

"I'll be there in two seconds." He had only said that so he could admire the view of her backside. And it turned out to be a great idea, because he was rewarded with an extra sway of her hips, which also meant that she knew what he was up to, that made him chuckle quietly to himself.

He walked into his bedroom only seconds later and found her already lying in his bed, with her eyes closed. Why the hell was she so tired?

After he had brushed his teeth and changed into his sleeping pants and t-shirt, he was finally ready to go to bed and join her. But he was a bit nervous, he never was much of a cuddler in bed. He had never cuddled with Stacy, because they both did wanted to have some space. And with Lydia there never was any time for cuddling, because she had to get home to her family. But he was willing to try for Annette, it certainly felt nice to have his arm around her on the couch.

When he lifted the covers she opened her eyes and smiled up at him and waited for him to get comfortable. "It took you longer than two seconds. Why do we use that phrase anyway?" She turned to her side to face him "It always takes longer than two seconds."

"Did you drink too much wine?" He asked her amused by the question she had asked him.

She rolled her eyes "No, I'm just really tired. I've been reading final exams all day."

"Oh why didn't you call to cancel then?" He turned on his side as well.

"No" she reached out and put her hand on his cheek and stroked it with her thump. "I wanted to see you again." He leaned into her hand and closed his eyes.

"I'm really glad that you came, even though you nearly fell asleep during the movie." She giggled, a sound that he never had heard before, but wanted to hear more of.

She came closer to him and kissed his cheek, then she dragged her mouth to his neck and peppered it with soft kisses. He sighed and put his arms around her to pull her closer, his hand slipped under her shirt.

"If you keep that up, we're not gonna sleep any time soon." She smiled and stopped what she was doing.

"Sorry."

"It's okay. Just don't start something you can't finish." She giggled again and rested her head on his shoulder and her hands were on his chest stroking him tenderly.

He closed his eyes and could hear her breathing get heavy, she was already fast asleep. He was glad that she was staying, there was no way she would've made it home. He pulled her even closer and sighed again and fell asleep as well.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Thank you for the reviews!**

House slowly opened his eyes and closed them tightly again, because the sun was too bright. He had forgotten to close the curtains last night. But when he wanted to get up he couldn't because Annette had half her body on his. Her head was on his shoulder, her hands had slipped under his t-shirt and were on his belly and she even had her leg around his waist. But still, he couldn't remember the last time he had slept so well.

His next problem was that he needed to go to the bathroom. How was he going to get her off him without waking her? He turned to his side, now they were face to face. She really was a beauty, but he didn't have time to admire her, he really had to go. So to get her on her back he turned some more, he was basically on top her now. And to his surprise and hers even more, her eyes were wide open.

"What are you doing? I thought I wasn't going to get in your pants today?"

He smirked down at her and cupped her cheek running his fingers over her lips, again he was surprised when she kissed them.

"Well I can tell you're happy to see me." She said when she felt his morning erection on her thighs.

He continued to smirk down at her and replaced his fingers with his lips. They kissed each other tenderly.

"Morning" he whispered, his lips were still very close to hers.

"Morning… So why are you on top of me?"

"I was trying to get you on your back without waking you up."

"Okay. Why?" She kissed his neck and her hands were on his hips again she slipped them under his shirt.

"I'm sorry, but you're gonna have to stop that. The reason I had to get you onto your back, was because I need to go to the bathroom."

"Ohhh… Go ahead." She yawned and she still looked pretty tired.

"Why don't you go back to sleep? I'll wake you when breakfast is ready." She didn't need to be told twice, she was practically asleep again before he even reached the bathroom.

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Wilson was on the phone when House limped into the kitchen. He was going to make Annette a traditional breakfast with all the fixings.

"Why are you making so much breakfast, I already ate in fact I'm late for work."

"Greg? Do you mind-" but she didn't get to finish her sentence as Wilson turned and was very surprised to see her standing there in nothing but House's shirt. You could barely see his eyebrows as they had shot up and his mouth was formed in a big 'o'.

"Do you mind if I use your shower?"

"No go ahead. The towels are on the shelf above the toilet."

House knew Wilson was waiting for her to leave again so that he could begin interrogating him.

"She stayed the night?"

"Yes" House was just going to say yes and no, he didn't want to give too much away it was just too much fun to torture Wilson.

"Did you sleep together?"

"Yes, but we didn't have sex."

"Okay. So it went really good yesterday?"

"Yes." And House smiled at that.

"That's great. I need to get to work. See you later."

"Whatever." House really didn't want to talk to Wilson. Why did he have to be so nosey? House knew that Wilson had more questions when he came back from work again.

Annette returned just as House was putting the eggs on her plate.

"I hope I didn't give your roommate a heart attack."

"You almost gave me a heart attack walking in nothing but my shirt." It slipped out of him, there was nothing he could do. Why couldn't he keep his mouth shut around her?

She just smiled and sat down next to him.

"It was fun though, his yaw nearly hit the floor."

She giggled and patted his right thigh and oddly enough it didn't bother him, it actually felt nice to have somebody besides him touching his scar.

So they ate breakfast together. Not much was said, but it didn't matter. Right now it was enough for them just to sit next to each other.

"I should probably get going." She said after they had finished. "I still have a ton of papers to grade."

"You're just saying that so you don't have to do the dishes." He said to her playfully.

"You were the one that made a big breakfast. I would've been fine with some toast and coffee!"

"Right, you practically inhaled your food." He smiled, he liked that she didn't take most of the things he said too seriously.

"Do you seriously want me to help, because it's not a problem?"

"No it's okay. You can do them next time."

"So there's going to be a next time?" _Dammit, _he didn't want to end their time together with a serious conversation, but he started digging the hole himself and he couldn't just put the sand back in again.

"I hope there will be. You didn't even give me a chance to get into your pants." _Oh, shit_. Had he just said that? He already knew he wanted more than just sex.

He could see on her face that she did too, because she had tears in her eyes after his comment.

"She you around then." She had to get away from him fast, because she hurried to the door. It was hard for him to keep up with her. But he wanted to fix it before she left, he didn't want to end their date on a downfall.

"Annette please wait!" She let go of the doorknob, but didn't face him. "Turn around." Her shoulders were shaking. "Please." She turned but she didn't look at him, instead she looked at the floor. So House decided to tell her what he wanted out of their relationship and then she could decide what she wanted.

"I'm sorry. I'm not good at talking about my feelings. I hide behind my jokes and rude comments." That finally got her attention. She looked at him with bloodshot eyes the tears were still running down her cheeks. He took her hand and held on to it tightly.

"I do want to see you again. Last night was the best night I had in a very long time." She smiled and he took that as a sign that he was saying the right things.

"I had a good time too." She embraced him tightly. He sighed and buried his head in her neck and inhaled her scent.

"Would you like to meet for lunch tomorrow?" He whispered.

"What if you have a case?" Her voice was just as quiet.

"Then my team will handle it." She smiled and kissed his cheek. He breathed a sigh of relief, everything seemed to be okay again. He tightens his hold on her, he didn't want to let her go yet.

"That still doesn't mean that you'll get into my pants." He laughed and lifted his head to look at her.

House brushed her tears away and cupped her cheek. When their lips finally met it was passionate yet tender kiss. He opened her mouth with his tongue and started to trace her teeth and when their tongues met they fought for dominance.

The kiss ended when they no air left in their lungs. Their foreheads touched and they were both trying to get their breathing under control.

"So," she said after a while "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Absolutely. Just meet me in my office, it's on the fourth floor."

She nodded and gave him one last kiss. "Bye."


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Thank you for the reviews!**

House woke up on Monday at 6 am, he hadn't been up that early in years. As he walked in the kitchen he noticed the rose in the vase. House had forgotten to give it to her, he should take it with him to work.

He was ready to go to work on time. The faces he would get from his team if he showed up on time were going to be priceless, he was looking forward to it. Also if he did his clinic hours early he would get Cuddy of his back, which meant he could have a long lunch with Annette.

Wilson met him at the elevators, he had already been at work for two hours as a patient needed him.

"Wow, I don't think I've ever seen you here so early."

"I know. Did you see the face of Nurse Brenda? It's the first time I've ever seen her being shocked."

"So what are you doing here so early?" They stepped onto elevator together.

"I'm meeting Annette for lunch. And I thought if I did my clinic hours early I could make it a long lunch."

"You really like her, huh?"

House just nodded, he wanted to get of the elevator before Wilson was going to start with his lecture. And luckily for him only seconds later the doors opened and House limped as fast as he could to his office.

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"Good morning. Do we have a case?" He threw his backpack in his office and limped to the coffee machine. House knew that if they didn't answer him right away meant that he had done his job and surprised the hell out of them. As he turned around to look at his team, they were indeed looking at him with mouths wide open, except for Thirteen. Damn he had forgotten that she had listened to him when he talked to Annette the other day, she had obviously put two and two together.

"I said, do. We. Have. A. Case?"

"Am I hallucinating?" Taub asked.

"What are you doing here? Usually you're still in a coma at this time of the day." Foreman said, he had recovered quickly and was back at reading his medical journal again. Chase was still staring at him though.

"I hate repeating myself, but do we have a case or not?" House was beginning to think that it was a bad idea showing up early.

"No we don't." Thirteen said she still had that smile on her face.

"Okay I'll be in the clinic if you need me." He left the team alone again, but he could still hear Taub saying:

"Does he even know where that is?"

House soon discovered that there was an advantage of being in the clinic early. First of all the nut jobs seemed to come to the clinic after 12 o'clock. The patients this early were mostly kids with their mothers. He had always liked to treat kids, they were easy to talk to and he could be silly with them. And once you got the mother to calm down, it really was a piece of cake for him.

He finished his hours at 11:30. Now he just had to sneak out of the clinic before Cuddy noticed him and then he could wait for Annette in his office.

"I heard a rumor you were down here, doing your hours voluntarily." Dammit, who told her he was down here?

"I'm actually done, but I'll be back same time tomorrow."

"You can't just come and go as you like. Who is gonna take your original hours from 1 to 4 today?" She said coldly. He hated that their relationship was like this at the moment, she was one of his longest friends and it would be shame if they lost it.

"Listen, I did my hours, that's more than you usually get from me. See ya!" House limped to the elevator without looking back. But he still needed to talk to her about their problems.

At 1 his office phone was ringing.

"House."

"Dr. House we have a Miss Annette Nielsen asking for you?" The receptionist at the front desk asked him in a surprisingly kind voice.

"Send her up." He hung up before she could answer him, he hadn't lost that habit yet. He also fished the rose out of his backpack.

"So this is your office?" He looked up and was startled by her beauty again. She was wearing a thin black jacket with a black skirt and a red pair of do-me-pumps.

"Yeah," He smiled "This is where the magic happens."

"And the 3 people staring at us?" He looked to his right and sure enough three sets of eyes were staring at them. Two had their mouth wide open and Thirteen was back to her knowing smile again, God he hated when she did that.

"Yeah these are the idiots that work for me."

"Get back to work!" He shouted at them.

She laughed and closed the distance a little bit between them. "What do you say to really giving them something to stare at?"

"What do you have in mind?" He took a step closer to her.

"Well," She had closed the distance completely. She reached out and took his hand. He pulled her into him, it felt really nice to have her body pressed up at him again. "I was thinking something like this." She kissed him hungrily. It was as if they hadn't seen each other in weeks. House ended the kiss first, as he didn't have any air left in his lungs. He still had his eyes closed when he heard her say: "So are you ready to go?"

"Yeah" He opened his eyes and she was smiling at him, so he gave her one last peck on the cheek, and then went for his leather jacket and the rose. He picked it up and said:

"You forgot something." He held the rose up so that she could see it. The smile that greeted him was amazing. It was worth every minute of getting up in the morning and working that beloved clinic just to leave with her on a long lunch date.

"Thank you."

They left the office together, leaving a shocked team behind, even Thirteen looked like she was surprised.

When they waited for the elevator, she reached out and took his hand and even though he would look like a romantic fool to the rest of the staff he didn't care. He even liked that she didn't seem to mind showing everybody that she was with him, Stacy had never held his hand.

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House hadn't said much since they arrived at the diner across the hospital. He was deep in thought about Cuddy who had seen Annette and him leaving the hospital together. She was shocked to see him leaving hand in hand with a woman. But what struck him was that he didn't care what her reaction was, did that mean that he was over Cuddy? That he was ready to take his relationship with Annette to the next level?

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah sorry. So did you finish reading all of the papers?" House knew he had to tell her about Cuddy, but right now he just wanted to have a pleasant lunch with her.

"Oh don't remind of that. I went to bed very late again last night, because I had to finish them." Now that he looked very closely at her she did look very tired.

"Well at least you're finished now."

"Yeah" she patted his thigh. They were sitting next to each other in a corner.

"So what are you getting?" She held the menu up, so that he could take a look. Her hand never left his right thigh, massaging it gently. It felt really good.

"I think I'll go for the burger. What about you?" He placed his arm around her, stroking her shoulder with his thump.

"I'll take the burger as well." He smiled, it was good that she didn't mind eating junk food, because he does eat it a lot. Not as much as he used to, since he went to that cooking class with Wilson, but it was still nice that he had found something to share with her.

After placing their orders, they didn't talk much. They just enjoyed sitting close together. She seemed to enjoy the silence which was another thing they had in common.

"Do you have a case at the moment?" She asked after a while.

"No. Why?"

"Well I wanted to invite you over for dinner tomorrow." She stopped massaging his thigh, as if she was nervous of what his answer was going to be.

"Oh, I'd love to."

"Great."

"But if I get a case then I have to cancel." He looked down at the table, for some reason it bothered him that he often had to work late. It hadn't bothered him before.

"Hey" She squeezed his thigh gently, "I understand that you often have to work at weird hours."

"Sorry" He whispered "it's just Stacy always complained that I was never home." He couldn't stop comparing his relationship to Annette to his relationship with Stacy.

"It's okay. As long as you remember to call." He nodded. He had always called Stacy to tell her when he would make it home. Turned out it still wasn't enough to please her.

The waitress placed their burgers in front of them and he reluctantly had to let go of her shoulder.

He ate his burger in record time, just so he could put his arm around her again. Normally he wasn't much of a touchy person, but for some reason he couldn't keep his hands off of Annette.

He looked at her eating, she wasn't even half way through her meal. So he reached out with cat like reflexes and stole one of her French fries.

"Hey you had your own!" She scolded, but he could see the smile in her eyes. He grabbed some more.

"Here just take some, I'm not gonna finish all of it." She pushed the plate a little closer to him.

"Nah, it's not fun anymore. And stolen food tasted better." She just laughed, but she left the plate between them. So they finished her meal together.

He paid for their lunch and they left the diner together hand in hand.

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"Well this is me." She pointed to the big entrance hall of the university.

He nodded and pulled her into him, embracing her tightly inhaling her scent of her neck.

"I really have to go. I'm teaching a class in ten minutes."

"Okay." But he didn't let her go, instead he tightened his hold on her.

"You're not helping." She giggled which turned into moan as he kissed her neck.

They were rudely interrupted when his pager beeped. He stopped kissing her to take a look. He groaned when he saw who it was.

"Looks like I have a new patient."

"Does that mean you can't come tomorrow?" He looked up at her and didn't see disappointment, which meant that she had been telling the truth earlier.

"I don't know yet, maybe my team can handle it. I'll call you later, okay?"

She nodded and cupped his cheek, he closed his eyes and leaned into her touch. Then he felt her lips on his, she gave him a tender kiss that made him a little weak in the knees.

"I'll hear from you later then." All he could do was nod, he didn't trust his voice just yet. As she walked away, he was mesmerized by her backside. How did he get so lucky?

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"Hey judging from the smile on your face and the glint in your eyes, the lunch went well, I take it?" Wilson caught up with him at the elevator.

House didn't answer him though, he stepped into the elevator and left a smirking Wilson behind.


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Thank you for the reviews! What an amazing first episode, can't wait for the next one!**

The case turned out to be an easy one, he solved it by the end of the day. So when he got home, he called Annette, but all he got was her voicemail. He left her a message telling her to call him.

Wilson arrived two hours later, House had just finished making dinner for them.

"Wow, you're making dinner? Are you having company again?"

"Nope, just felt like cooking."

"Right." Wilson stood next to him "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

"I don't know, you tell me." House didn't answer and Wilson knew that House wanted to talk to him and it must be pretty serious. All Wilson had to figure out was how to push House into talking to him.

"If you want to talk you know where to find me." House just nodded and was glad the conversation was over.

As they were putting the dishes away after dinner, House's cell suddenly played 'knowing me, knowing you' He smirked knowing that it was Annette.

"House"

"Hi. I got your message. So when are you off tomorrow?"

"I'm usually off at 5." He smiled.

"Great, I'll have dinner ready at 6:30 then."

"Okay, should I bring anything?" At that Wilson's head shot up, House knew that he would never hear the end of that.

"No, just bring yourself."

"Alright, I'll see you then."

"Yeah, bye!" He hung up and was readying himself for Wilson's gloating.

"So, you're not going to be home tomorrow?"

"Nope"

"Are you gonna spend the night there?"

"What are you, my mom?" House was actually nervous about that, but he didn't want to talk about it with Wilson.

"No, of course not!"

"Well then drop it!" House snapped.

They continued to clean up the kitchen in silence. House was still thinking about what could happen tomorrow, it was driving him insane. Why was he so nervous anyway? He liked her and she seemed to like him, so it would be the next logical step. "This is crazy."

"What is?" House wasn't aware of that he had said that last part out loud.

"Nothing"

"Come on tell me."

"Why are you suddenly so curious? Just because you don't have a love life doesn't mean you have to get into mine!" House snapped

"So it is about Annette?"

"Listen, if I want to talk I can call Nolan!"

"Hey, I'm just trying to help you out!" Now it was Wilson's turn to snap.

House hung his head and sighed. "I'm nervous" He mumbled.

"Of course you are, but that's part of dating someone."

"But with Stacy I knew what I wanted. And now I don't know." He looked up at Wilson waiting to hear if he had something useful to say.

"Yeah, because you know what it feels like when the relationship ends." It sounded really girly coming from Wilson, but it did make a little sense to House.

"So what do I do?"

"You enjoy the time you spend with her and if you feel you're both ready, you take to the next level."

House thought the rest of the night about Wilson's advice.

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House had left the hospital at 5:30, that gave him enough time get home and change and to pick up a bottle of wine. He also bought some condoms, it felt weird buying condoms as a fifty-year old.

So now at exactly 6:30 House pulled into the parking lot of a very pricy apartment building. He wondered how she could afford to live here.

He rang the doorbell, but nobody answered. After ringing it a couple of times, he began to worry. Had she forgotten about their date? No she couldn't have, he talked to her only yesterday. Maybe he should call her. As he was fumbling in his pockets, not easy with his cane and the wine bottle, he heard somebody walking towards him.

"I'm so sorry," He turned and sure enough it was Annette, she carried what looked like four binders filled with papers and she had two bags around her shoulders. And he was complaining about his cane and wine bottle, how could she carry all of this?

"I got held up at work. One of my students didn't hand in his paper and I had to track him down and that led to a very long conversation. And now I don't have time to cook, and now I feel bad, because you made-" He silenced her with a kiss. She was babbling and looked like she was going to have a panic attack.

"Calm down and take a breath." He held onto her shoulders.

She took a deep breath "Good to see you." He laughed and was glad to see that she was back to normal again.

"You too"

"Could you take my keys? They're right there on the binders." She nodded towards the binders.

He opened the door for them and they walked towards the elevators. "Which floor?"

"Eighth." He noticed that it was the top floor, he was even more curious how she could afford to live here.

As the door opened again they stepped out and there was only one door. She pointed at it telling him to open it. He let her go in first so that she could put the binders down. As he stepped into the apartment he was shocked. Her living room alone was bigger that his own apartment . Over the fireplace was the biggest flat screen TV he had ever seen. He looked to his right and his eyes went wide, she had a pool table. God, she was living in a man heaven!

"Is it okay if I just order Chinese or something?" When she didn't get an answer she looked around and couldn't see him. The living room seemed empty, but she could hear him limping around. As she rounded the corner she could see him lining up his next shot at the pool table. She watched him as he sunk the 7th ball in the right corner pocket.

"Nice shot." He jumped at her voice.

"Thank you. Do you play?"

"Yeah. The pool table is the only good thing about this apartment." She didn't smile anymore, her eyes looked sad.

"What do you mean?"

"My father bought this apartment for me and I just don't feel home here. It's just way too big for one person."

House nodded, he picked the wine bottle up from the floor "I hope you like white wine." He said and handed it to her.

"You didn't have to bring anything."

"It's okay." Her smile turned to a frown.

"I'm sorry that I didn't have time to cook."

"Hey," He took her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze "I didn't just come for a home cooked dinner."

"Oh, really?" House was glad that he had turned the frown into a smile again.

"Well there's this cute red head," Her face lid up "with killer legs, sexy accent and has a great sense of humor," His face turned serious "I really like her."

She cupped his cheek "The red head wants you to know that she likes you too." They leaned into each other and their lips met in a passionate kiss that left them both breathless.

"And know that I know she has a pool table, I might never leave her apartment." She laughed and slapped his chest playfully.

"Is it okay if we just order Chinese?"

"Sure" He fished his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed a number "Hi this is Greg House, I'd like to place an order… Yes, the usual, but for two this time. Yes… No deliver it to this address." He gave them the address and hung up.

"You have a Chinese restaurant on speed dial?"

"I order a lot of take out. It saves time." He shrugged.

"Do they even deliver in this part of town? Your place is on the other end of town."

"I ordered from the restaurant a block away." She frowned in confusion. "My own apartment is two blocks away."

"Okay." She still looked pretty confused.

"I only moved in with Wilson after I left Mayfield. My own apartment is on Baker street."

Annette nodded finally understanding. An awkward silence hung between them.

"I'll go open the wine." He nodded and continued his pool game.

He stopped playing when he heard the TV being turned on. "Wow, now that's what I call a big screen TV."

"I was gonna see if there was a movie on. Otherwise there are DVD's in the drawers over there." She pointed to a shelf unit on his left side.

"Oh look, Shawshank Redemption is on in 5 minutes. Do you want to watch it?"

"Yeah sure, it's a good movie."

"So how come, you don't just move out and buy your own place?" he had been wondering about that.

"Well, right now I'm saving money for furniture and stuff. It's just so that I can move into my own place without my father's help." She got a dark look in her eyes and left for the kitchen.

House started to follow her, but the ringing of the doorbell stopped him. Their dinner was there. He paid and limped towards the kitchen. He saw her standing at the sink looking out the window. So he set their food on the table and limped slowly to stand beside her.

"I didn't mean to upset you, Annette." Even though his voice was quiet she still jumped at the sound of it.

"I know, I don't blame you." He took a step closer to her and placed his hand gently on the small of her back, there by urging her to talk to him.

"All my life my father has always taken care of me, even when I started making my own money, he always bought me a fancy apartment or gave some extra money." She shook her "This sounds so lame."

"No it doesn't. I get it…" He told her "You want to be an independent woman. It's like you're 21 all over again, you want to get away from your parents as fast as possible. Believe me I get it, I moved out as soon as I could. I think that's very brave." He didn't want to tell her the real reason he moved out was because of his father. That was something he wanted to keep to himself for as long as he could.

She turned to him, her eyes were filled with tears. Did he say something to upset her again? "What's wrong?" Instead of answering she embraced him tightly, sobbing into his chest. He was still confused, but he slowly hugged her back.

"The food will get cold." He told her quietly, he really needed to sit down because of his leg, but she didn't need to know that.

"Sorry… it's just that you're the first one that understands how I feel. My ex-boyfriend worked for my dad, so all the people we knew were from my dad's company." He could barely hear what she was saying as she was still sobbing in his chest. It was really heart breaking, but he was relieved that she wasn't upset with him.

She calmed down eventually and as she looked up at him she must've seen the pain in his face. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, my leg hurts nothing new. I just need to sit down."

"Let's eat then." She took the wine and dinner and walked to the living room.

"No plates?" He asked following her.

"Nope. You're not supposed to use plates when you order your dinner, especially Chinese." He smiled, she really got the concept of ordering dinner home. The whole point of ordering take out is that you don't have to do the dishes when you're done. Wilson always used plates, when they ordered.

She gave him a carton and they took a seat next to each other on the couch. The movie had already started, but that didn't matter to him, he knew by heart. And apparently so did she, because she was mouthing along to the dialog. House realized that he was happy just sitting here enjoying Chinese and a movie with her, life couldn't get much better right now.

At the last commercial break she put the empty cartons away and opened another bottle of wine. Had they been through a whole bottle already? When she returned she gave him his glass and took a seat next to him again, but this time she was much closer. Their shoulders and thighs were touching. Slowly he put his arm around her and pulled her even closer, she sighed and placed her hand on his right thigh rubbing it gently. He was glad that his scar didn't freak her out anymore. It relaxed him even more when she laid her head on his shoulder.


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews!**

House sighed as the movie ended, "I should probably get home."

"Are you sure you'll be able to drive? We drank a lot of wine."

"Was that your plan all along? Getting me drunk so that I'll spend the night here."

"Maybe" He chuckled and nodded his okay to stay over.

"Do you want to watch another movie?"

"No I'm actually pretty tired, let's just go to bed." He wasn't actually tired, but he knew that she needed to sleep more than four hours.

"Okay then… the bedroom is through that door." He nodded and went to the door behind him.

It turned out to be another big room. The bed was in the middle of it. The left corner was filled with a big closet. As he turned to his right he saw a little table which had some picture frames on top of it. There were pictures of two kids a boy and a girl both of them were smiling. The boy seemed to have the same color of eyes as Annette. And the girl had the same hair color as Annette. There was one more picture it contained a younger Annette, she was smiling up at him she also had her arm around a young man in his 20's. He had the same eye color as the girl in the other picture. _That must be her brother,_ House thought.

"That's my brother Thomas," she confirmed "he lives in London with his wife Victoria. And those," she pointed at the two kids "are my niece Sophie, she is 6 years old, and my nephew Jamie, he just turned 5 last week."

"Are you keeping in touch with them?"

"Yeah, they were here two months ago. My brother and I have always been close. What about you?"

"I don't have any siblings. My dad was in the military and my mom had her hands full with me I don't think she could've handled another one all by herself."

"Do you keep in touch with your parents?"

"My dad died a year ago. I haven't talked to my mom since the funeral." She sensed that he really didn't want to talk about. She squeezed his shoulder and walked through a door, to what he assumed was the bathroom.

House kept staring at the pictures. Since his return from Mayfield, he often wondered what his mother was up to. But he wasn't quite ready to tell what he had been up to.

"Aren't you gonna get ready?" She was leaning against the door frame.

His thoughtful expression turned into a smirk "You're just waiting to get in bed with me again, aren't you?" She rolled his eyes at him and disappeared into the bathroom again.

As he entered he was again surprised how big the room was. He could see why she thought the apartment was too big for one person.

"Here I found an extra toothbrush." He looked at the color "Sorry pink was all I had."

"Just don't tell Wilson." She giggled.

They brushed their teeth together it felt really domestic, but surprisingly it didn't scare him, it just felt right.

"I think you looked cute with your princess toothbrush."

"Oh, you're going to pay for that." With quick reflexes he wet his hands and splashed ice-cold water in her face.

"Hey!" She gasped. House limped as fast as he could to the bedroom he needed to hide.

"You're in big trouble, mister!" Annette yelled. As she entered the bedroom she had to giggle at his hiding place. He had pulled the blanket over his head, but his feet were still showing. It reminded her of playing hide-and-seek with Sophie and Jamie.

"Mmmh, let's see maybe he is hiding in the closet." She walked to it and opened the door "Nope, maybe under the bed." She bends over to take a look "No just his shoes, well that just leaves the bed." She walked to the bed and took a seat next to him. Slowly she tugged the blanket down.

"Hi cutie!" She beamed down at him.

He smirked again "Okay that's enough out of you!"


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: Thank you for the reviews… and sorry for the long wait, you know how it is University and all that crap:D**

_He smirked again "Okay that's enough out of you!" _

He grabbed her thighs and pulled her underneath him thereafter he reached for her hands and pinned them above her head with his left hand.

"What are you doing?" She asked surprised.

House leans down their faces only inches apart "I'm gonna torture you." He whispered.

"What? Ho-" She didn't get to finish the question as he started to tickle her left side mercilessly. Annette started with out with giggling quietly, but then it turned into a full blown laugh, when he found an extremely ticklish spot on her thigh.

Annette was trying to get him off her, but his body weight held her where he wanted her. House wanted her to beg him to stop.

"Stop it!" she giggled "Please stop it."

He did and waited for her to look at him and when she did he said "I'll stop when you say that I'm not cute."

She smiled and tried to get her hands free, but House tightened his hold on them. His right hand slid back to her thigh ready to tickle her again.

"Alright!" she yelled when she felt his hand on her thigh again "You're not cute." She smiled again and he placed his hand on her hip knowing that she wanted to say more "You're actually more of a jerk."

House chuckled "That wasn't so hard now, was it?" He still held on to her arms though.

"I think you can let go now." She smiled coyly at him.

"And if I don't want to?" His face turned serious.

"Well" hers turned serious as well "then I guess you're stuck with me." That gave him the push he needed to. Everything was going to be okay.

"I guess I am." He smiled and finally let go of her hands. She immediately brought them around his neck. The world stood still as they stared in each other's eyes.

He kissed her tenderly at first, but then the kiss deepened. She made the first move when she pulled his shirt off.

"Are you sure?" He asked her breathless.

"Very" She said just as breathless and pulled his face towards her again.

Their clothes came off quickly and soon they were lying entangled in each other kissing lazily. He really enjoyed the skin-on-skin contact, it had been a while since he had felt something this amazing.

"God, I need you inside." She moaned. House slowly ran his hand down her stomach and he was surprised when he reached her center that she was indeed ready for him. My God just his kisses were enough for her. But who was he kidding he was rock hard and ready for her as well.

"I have some condoms in my wallet." He was about to leave and find his jeans when she swung his leg around his waist holding him close to her. He could feel her wet center with the tip of his cock. "Yes?" He smiled.

"I've some condoms in my nightstand right behind you, so you don't have to leave this bed." She said smugly.

"I like the way you think, because I've no idea where my jeans are." He rolled them and she straddled his hips and leaned over and fumbled around in the drawer. House grinded his pelvis against hers making her gasp out in surprise. Finally she found the wrapper.

He rolled them over again and snatched the wrapper out of her hand and carefully opened it with his teeth and rolled the condom on his member. He placed himself between her legs putting most of his weight on his forearms and his left leg.

He leaned down and kissed her softly and waited for her to open her eyes again. When she did he was startled by what he saw. Pure trust, respect, anticipation and maybe even love. It had been a long time since a woman had looked at him this way. He could only think of Stacy in the beginning of their relationship.

He placed his forehead on hers breathing heavily overwhelmed by emotions he thought he had buried deep down inside of him.

"Are you okay?" She asked concerned when she saw him blinking furiously.

"Yeah" he whispered "Are you ready?"

She nodded and spread her legs further apart giving him full access. He entered her gently, one inch at a time, when he was fully inside of her he waited for her to stretch for his length. When she was ready she bucked up against him wanting him to start moving.

And House didn't disappoint her when he started moving slowly in and out of her. He knew the rhythm was killing her and him too, but he wanted to enjoy the sensation of her body underneath him.

"Oh God Greg, faster!" She moaned loudly and grabbed his ass forcing him to go deeper and faster. He groaned out in pleasure when she squeezed her inner muscles around his member.

Their rhythm was increasing and she wrapped her legs around his waist letting him thrust deeply inside of her. "Mmmm… Right there!" She gasped when he hit her spot.

"God" House groaned when she scrapped her nails along his back. She pulled him close to her and kissed him passionately.

He thrust into her even faster, because he knew that he couldn't control himself much longer, but he wanted her to come first.

"Don't stop" She moaned and he hoped that she was close too, so he pumped hard into her a couple of times until he felt her contracting around him and in with a soft cry of his name she went over the edge pulling him with her.

House sighed and collapsed on top of her, but not putting too much weight on her. They were both trying to get their breathing under control, she was the first to speak.

"I'm glad that I'm stuck with you."

He chuckled and kissed her forehead before he pulled out of her and disposed the condom in the trashcan at the desk in the corner.

House returned to the bed and spooned behind her. She snuggled her back against his chest and he tightened his hold on her and inhaled her scent. Then she started wriggling her ass against his soft member.

"If you want another round you'll have to wait 20 minutes." He managed to mumble even though he was already half asleep.

He fell asleep to the beautiful tone of her laughter.


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews...**

House woke up to a tingling feeling on his neck. He opened his eyes and it took him some time to realize that he wasn't in his own bed. And then he remembered, House smiled the tingling feeling turned out to be Annette breathing, as she had her head at the crook of his neck. He found it amazing that they still were cuddled together, even though they had moved during the night.

House groaned though when he saw that it was only 5 o'clock in the morning. What was he doing up so early? He turned to his side towards her and watch in surprise as she snuggled into his warmth again.

The next time he woke up was to the buzzing of her alarm. She groaned and rolled over so she could turn it off.

"Why are you getting up so early?" He asked, he had only fallen asleep again an hour ago.

"I run every morning. Go back to sleep, I'll be back in an hour." She told him and gave him a kiss. Annette didn't have to tell him twice and he fell asleep with a smile on his face. Again.

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"Hello?" he heard somebody say in the background. Why wouldn't they just let him sleep?

"Yeah he's still asleep. I could wake him if it's important… Okay." She walked into her bedroom, seeing him rubbing his sleepy eyes.

"Who were you talking to?" He asked yawning most of the words.

She smiled "Your team was trying to reach you."

"And you picked up?" He asked as if she was crazy.

"Yes, they called 3 times. I guessed it was important."

"And you picked up." She nodded "Okay. What did they say?"

"Something about a case and the guy, Foreman I think his name was, said that you should call him back." House nodded, why did he always get a case, when he didn't want one?

Now he only had about an hour with Annette before he had to leave, they could still have breakfast together though.

"So breakfast?"

"Yeah. I have to get to work."

Annette nodded and suddenly turned around and picked his jeans and boxers of the floor. She seemed to understand that he didn't want to show his scar. Everything always looks different in daylight. House felt grateful, but at the same time a little ashamed. Why couldn't he show her? If they were building a relationship she should be allowed to see it, right?

So he pulled the covers down and showed her everything. Annette was surprised, she didn't expect that he would open up to her so soon. But she was relieved that he trusted her.

He took her hand, kissing her palm before he slowly brought his hand down to his ugly scar. It was a big step for him, she was the first non-medical person to touch it since nearly a decade. Her fingertips started trailing along the ridges of his scar. House leaned back enjoying the feeling. Then she started rubbing his scar like he had shown her some days ago.

"I'm not hurting you, am I?"

He opened his eyes and caressed her cheek with his thump "No, it feels amazing."

She smiled and continued massaging his thigh "I should probably start making breakfast."

He looked at the time and nodded "Okay. Can I use your shower?" Annette nodded and walked to the kitchen.

House was showered and dressed 10 minutes later. He walked into the kitchen and she had the breakfast ready, cereals and toast with what he hoped was really strong coffee.

"That's some good coffee." He approved right away, it was better than Cameron's.

"Thank you. It's some of the view gifts my father sends, which I don't throw away."

House nodded. He really didn't know what to say to that. Her father was obviously a touchy subject and he didn't want to make her cry again. They both had some serious family issues, maybe they could talk about them some time.

"I'm sorry that I didn't make you a fancy breakfast." She had her back turned to him as she buttered her toast.

"Don't worry about it." He placed his left hand around her waist "I was trying to impress you when I cooked. You don't have to impress me anymore."

She flung her arms around him and kissed him hungrily in response.

"Would you…" He said still trying to get his breathing under control "like to go out to dinner with me tonight?"

"Sure and dessert at your place?" He smiled already looking forward to the last part.

"Absolutely" He leaned down again for another toe-curling-kiss "We better eat, before we end up in bed again."

Annette chuckled and handed him his coffee. They were still standing very close together looking out of the window watching as the birds flew by. And before House realized it the hour was nearly up.

"I should get going."

"Already?" She gave him her best puppy-dog eyes.

"Stop with the eyes…" he scolded her with a smile on his face.

She smiled and gave him his coat. House pulled her into his arms holding her as close to him as possible. He felt her kissing his neck and she started to gently stroking his back. Why did he always get a case, when he didn't want one? He would much rather stay here with her.

"Thank you for everything." He whispered and rested her forehead against hers. It didn't take long before he felt her lips on his. House moaned his approval when their tongues tangled together.

He pulled back and smiled down at her "See ya later. I'll call when I've made the reservations." She nodded and gave him one last kiss before finally letting him go.

As House waited for the elevator, he knew that Annette was still staring at him by the door. The doors opened and he stepped inside, when he turned around she sure enough was still standing there.

"Bye" she waved at him and the doors closed.

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House entered PPTH 10 minutes later, he had forgotten how close his old neighborhood was to the hospital.

"Well good morning Dr. House." Wilson grinned.

"Does some sort of alarm go off, when I step into the building?"

"Yeah and today it said 'Greg House got laid, Greg House got laid'"

"Oh shut up." Was all he could come up with and he couldn't stop the small smile that appeared on his face.

"You should've stopped at the loft and change your clothes before coming here."

"Doesn't matter they already know. Annette answered my phone when they called this morning." House mumbled, he hoped not everyone had heard what Wilson had said.

"You have a nice day then and I'll see you later."

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"So tell me about the case." He said when he entered the office. When nobody answered he looked at them only to be met with four smirking faces.

"Yes I had a date last night, which lasted till this morning." House said while rolling his eyes "Now, what's this case you found me?" He limped over to the white-board waiting for them.

Taub was the first to come to his senses as he started rattling off the symptoms of their new patient.


	15. Chapter 15

"Why do I have to wear jeans?" Annette asked, as she opened the door to him. She eyed his right hand which he kept behind his back.

"It's surprise, but you're gonna find out now." He pulled a helmet out behind him. Her eyes went wide when she saw it and House was afraid that she would say no. "It's okay we can take your car if you don't want to take the bike."

"No it's not that I don't want to, because I do." She was rewarded with a small smile "I'm just a little nervous, I've never ridden a motorcycle before."

"Really?" his face turned into a mischievous smile "Well, it's about time that you swing your sweat ass on one, don't you think?"

"Alright, but go slow." She gave him a nervous smile.

"Hey…" he put the helmet down and leaned his cane against the wall. He placed his hands on her hips and pulled her close to him "I'll be careful and if you don't like it we could always take a cab back to the loft." He leaned down to kiss her reassuringly.

It was nothing like House imagined, first she held onto him very tightly it was hard for him to breath. But then she relaxed and her hand ended near his thighs. It had been a long time since he had someone with him on the bike and it was a nice feeling, so he decided to take the long route to the restaurant.

It took 30 minutes before House finally parked the bike in front of the restaurant. As Annette stepped off her knees were a little wobbly, he reached out to steady her. After some seconds she nodded her thanks and he let go of her with a smile on his face.

Her hands were still shaking when she pulled her helmet off "That was, as you Americans would say, awesome!" her smile lit up her whole face and he had never seen her eyes this bright.

"So we're not taking a cab back?"

"No way! That bike is better than a rollercoaster." Her excitement did melt his heart just a little more. He really should thank Wilson for dragging him to that speed date.

"Come on then let's eat in a hurry so that we can get back on the bike again." He took her hand and led her into the restaurant.

"This is a nice restaurant." Annette remarked as they were seated in a private corner.

"I've never been here before, but Wilson says they have some great pasta dishes."

They chatted easily with each other after they had ordered their dinner, House had even ordered a salad for them to share, yes it seemed weird to him too, but it had slipped out of him before he could stop it.

"My God, these portions are huge!" Annette whispered over to him after the waiter had left their table again.

"Yes they are. I don't think I can finish it." He eyed the salad.

"Served you right for ordering the salad." She told him with a smile.

"I told you it slipped out of my mouth, so shut up!" He smiled as well.

"Well, I'm not touching it so you better eat it."

"Unless you want to pay you better stop making remarks like that." He pointed out.

"You asked me out remember?" She smiled in triumph.

House mumbled something she couldn't understand and continued eating "Aha," he suddenly said "you better eat some of the salad otherwise I won't let you ride on the bike with me!"

"Fine" They started laughing at the same time.

"Can we go back to my apartment first? I want to pack a bag with some clothes, so we don't have to get up early."

"I like how you think." She giggled and he could see her blushing.

They ate their dinner in comfortable silence. And sure enough he didn't finish his pasta dish and neither did she.

15 minutes later Annette hurried to her apartment building while House waited for her.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Wilson was just entering the apartment building when he saw House and Annette waiting for the elevator.

"Hi Annette, nice to see you again." He greeted them. House just nodded and kept his arm around Annette's waist. She just smiled at Wilson and snuggled closer to House and all three of them stepped into the elevator.

It amazed Wilson that House didn't seem to mind PDA's even at the hospital. His team was still talking about the kiss they had witnessed a week ago. And the nurses gossiped about the grumpy doctor holding the hand of a beautiful woman.

Wilson opened the door to the loft and House led her to his room and said "Just put your bag in there and I'll start the movie while you do that."

"So," Wilson said once they were alone in the kitchen "how was dinner?"

"Let me ask you something about that place, why are their portions so huge?"

"I don't know, but I thought you would like that. Did you bring the leftovers with you?"

"No, we took my bike. Wait a minute is that why you recommended that place so you could have the leftovers?"

"What? No, of course not."

"Right" House said not believing a word he said.

"Hey, what about that movie?" Annette asked as she entered the living room.

"Right" House said again and took a seat on the couch waiting for her to take a seat next to him. She immediately placed her hand on his right thigh and massaged it loosening the knots.

"You don't have to do that." He whispered even though he was enjoying the feeling.

"I know." She continued massaging his thigh.

House gently laid his hand on top of hers "Really it's fine" He whispered again. At the same moment Wilson joined them on the couch. They really needed furniture, he should have a talk with Wilson about that.

"So what are we watching?" House asked.

"Let's watch something fun." Wilson answered.

"Usually you want to watch action. What's wrong?"

"Two of my patients died today, one of them was a six-year-old boy."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Annette said immediately.

"Comes with the job, but it's always hard, especially when it's a kid." He hated seeing Wilson like that. That was the reason he rarely saw his patients.

House got up and limped without his cane to the kitchen where he dug out his secret bourbon bottle. He also got two glasses and limped back to the couch.

"Looks like you could use a drink." He said and filled a glass for Wilson and Annette.

"None for you?" Wilson questioned.

"We had wine for dinner, so I've reached my limit."

Wilson nodded understanding, Annette on the other hand looked at him confused.

"I'm on anti-depressions, so I can only have about two glasses."

Oh, well I don't have to drink this."

"No… it's okay I don't mind."

They never got to watch the movie, instead Wilson had talked about his patients. It was nearly 2 am before they finally were lying in bed.

"I'm sorry that Wilson ruined our night together." House whispered.

She lifted her head off his chest "It's okay. Your friend needed you tonight." He nodded and let her snuggle into his warmth again. "I did have a good time on the bike today."

"Yeah that was fun, but it's getting cold outside so there probably won't be that many days left for us to ride in this year." He pulled her closer, letting her slip her hand under his shirt. He noticed that she did that a lot, but he decided that he didn't mind at all.

It didn't take long for them to fall asleep.


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: Thank you for everyone who put me on their story/author alerts and thank you for everybody else who bothered to take the time to read and review this**** and yes I know that it's a short chapter... anyway happy reading**

"So, how are things?" Nolan said as a greeting.

House was at his regular appointment. And all he really wanted was to spend the rest of the day with Annette, he hadn't seen her in three days. She had some urgent meetings at the university and he had a patient which seemed to be dying on him every hour. Today was the first day, where the patient seemed to be holding his own.

"Things are actually great." He allowed a small smile to cross his face "They seem to be going in the right direction."

"That's good to hear." He returned his smile.

"Yeah" House looked around the room for awhile "So, we done."

"No we're not. Why, do you need to be somewhere?" Nolan asked amused.

"Yeah, I haven't seen her for 3 days. This appointment is getting in the way of sexing-up-my-woman-time."

"So, you really like her, huh?"

"What is with everybody asking me this question? I'm fed up with hearing it. It's like you and Wilson don't think I have any kind of emotion. Of course I like her otherwise I would've stopped seeing her. If anything she should be running away from me." He finished in a quiet voice.

"Why would she run away from you?"

"Let's face it, she is at least 10 years younger than me and very bright, she's gonna figure out sooner or later that I'm an ass."

"If you think you're better off without her, why don't you just tell her that?"

House looked everywhere, but at Nolan. He had been wondering the same thing for the last three days.

"I don't know." He finally settled on.

"I think you're worried that this could be the beginning of something good."

God, he hated it when Nolan was right. Yes he was scared, but not that this could be the real deal, but that he would screw this up in a very bad way.

"What if I screw this up?" Nolan really felt bad for House. His experience with Stacy had harmed House a great deal.

"Just because your relationship with Stacy ended badly, doesn't mean that this one will." He tried to reassure House.

"Yeah, like you're the right person to ask about this, you're divorced right?"

"Yes"

"See. And I can't ask Wilson about this, because he is divorced three times and I don't have anybody else to ask."

"Right, so maybe you should tell her about this. Tell her what's on your mind and if she will run away screaming then you have all your answers to your fears."

"How do you expect I do this? Just say listen babe, you're better off without me, so good bye?" House shook his head and got, because he could see that their time was up.

"So how come you're itching to get out of here? Is it just so you can have sex with her?" Nolan watched him turn around and this time he had a real smile on his face, something rarely seen on what had become his favorite patient during the last six months.

"Of course I am. See you next week." And with that House left Nolan's office almost with a spring in his step.

Nolan knew that this was more than just sex for House. The whole incident with Lydia proved that House was capable to have a romantic relationship with somebody and maybe Annette sounded like a great woman. He also thought that House needed some kind of happiness in his life again.


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N: Thank you for stopping by and reading my story.**

She woke up to repeated knocking on the door. She didn't remember falling asleep, how can she be so tired all the time? Before she could ask herself anymore questions she should probably do something about the knocking.

"Finally, I've been standing here for 20 minutes."

"Sorry" it was good seeing him again, she had missed him the last couple of days.

"Good thing I have a cane otherwise my knuckles would've been broken."

"Again –" she didn't get to finish as the end of her sentence turned into a yawn.

"Did I wake you?" He limped closer to her placing his left hand onto her waist.

"Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm just so tired all the time. Those stupid meetings and exams. Hopefully next month will be better." Annette stepped into his embrace hugging him tightly nuzzling into his neck breathing in his scent.

"Why don't we relax and hop into that big tub of yours."

"That might just be the best idea I've heard in three days."

House chuckled "That must've been some boring meetings you go to."

"You have no idea." She mumbled still holding onto him.

"You have to let go, so that we can actually get into the tub."

"Fine" She let him go reluctantly, but not before she gave him a kiss on his neck.

When they entered the bathroom House noticed that she still had the pink toothbrush next to hers. The thought about how their last night together had ended brought a smile to his face.

He thought about a comment regarding the toothbrush, but when he turned around he forgot all about it. Annette stood before him in just what God had given her. He liked the curves of her body, she had a small waist and very wide hips and he noticed that her shoulders were wide as well. That could be from some sport she had played in her youth.

While he kept staring, Annette had turned on the faucet and the tub was filling rapidly, she even lit the candles in the corner of the tub.

"You need to get undressed otherwise the water will get cold." She smiled smugly knowing exactly why he was still dressed "Get undressed and hop in there, while I get some towels."

House was glad that he was alone to get out of his clothes, because his leg had been hurting, standing outside her door hadn't helped one bit. It was still a huge deal for him to show his pain, even though she had seen and touched his scar.

He had just made himself comfortable, when Annette entered the bathroom with a bunch of towels. House held out his hand so that he could help her in the tub.

House was mesmerized, God she might just have the most gorgeous body he had ever see. Hold on, there was something on her right shoulder blade it looked like a tattoo. But not just some popular Chinese symbol or something else that could've been a drunken mistake. No it was the Olympic symbol and under it was the numbers 1996 and 2000.

"What's with the tattoo?" He asked as he traced the Olympic rings with his finger tip.

"The national handball team of Denmark won gold in 1996 and 2000 and I was on the team." House chuckled as a response.

"You don't believe me, do you?"

"No sorry." He laughed.

"That's alright I'll show you the medals and I have a DVD so you can see me save some goals. I was a goalkeeper." She patted his left thigh.

30 minutes later and after refilling the tub twice, they stepped out of the water. They had spent the time with Annette talking about handball explaining the rules. It seemed to be very popular in Europe invented by two Danes. The way he understood it, it was like lacrosse without the sticks and a bigger ball.

"Do you have something for me to wear? I don't want to sleep in your bed smelling like the hospital."

"Yes, I think Thomas forgot some shorts and shirts the last time he was here." She stepped closer to him clearly enjoying that all he was wearing right now was a towel. "But you don't have to wear anything to bed."

House smiled liking the way she gently stroked his chest "I'll wear nothing if you do as well." His face only inches away from hers. Finally their lips met in a gentle yet hungry for more kiss. He realized just how much he had missed her. He learned just how much, after only knowing her for 17 days, he needed her.

She seemed to make everything better, even his leg wasn't so bad anymore and after that bath he was on a solid two on the pain scale, which he hadn't been on in years.

As the kiss died he leaned his forehead on hers. He was a little scared of what he just realized and how much he had fallen for her.

She had also promised him something "So can I see those medals?"

Annette led him to the bedroom and made him sit on the bed and then disappeared to find them in the living room. They were still wearing their towels, so House dropped his and crawled under the covers.

She came back carrying a huge box with both hands "That's a big box for two fake medals?" he teased her.

Annette smiled "Well my friend there are more than two _real_ medals in here" she dropped the box next to him and opened it "There are over 80 in here."

House looked in the box and it really was filled with medals. On the top of them all there were two smaller boxes, Annette handed them to him. He opened it and inside was another medal, this one was bigger though and the ribbon said _Atlanta 1996._

"Do you believe me now?"

"I – wow… Yes I do. And the other box is the one from Sydney?" He asked not waiting for her to reply he opened the box. "You said you had a DVD as well? Who knows maybe you bought the medals on e-bay."

Annette laughed and walked to the living room again. House did actually believe her, but he was shocked to say the least. Not many people could surprise him, but this beautiful woman just revealed one secret after another and continued to surprise him.

"What do you wanna see? Atlanta or Sydney?"

He chose Atlanta. The handball match was a little longer than an hour. She wanted to spool forward a couple of times, but he wouldn't allow it. He was trying to figure out how this sport worked and what the rules were. Annette would explain it as best as she could, he actually found it quite interesting.

"You know I remember some boys playing handball when we lived in Germany, but most of the boys played soccer."

"Handball is also very popular in Germany." She nodded at him.

"So this was something you did on a professional level?" He had so many questions about this, but it was already after midnight so he had to choose the most important ones.

"Yeah, but it's not like in football where you earn millions of dollars. I did alright though." She looked at him knowing that there were more questions to come.

"So how old were you when you won this?" This was actually something he wanted to know, because then he could calculate how old she really was.

"I turned 30 a day after we got the medals."

"That would make you 43 today." He was actually surprised again, she was only seven years younger than him.

"Yes it would. Why? How old did you think I was?" Annette smiled and turned towards him still only clad in a towel.

"I ah well, I thought you were in your mid thirties."

"Flattery will get you almost everywhere Greg House." She put the big medal box on the floor.

He felt uncomfortable he was never good at giving compliments. He was better at being rude to people. And right now their conversation was going in a way he didn't want it to go.

"So how old were you when you started playing?"

"I was six when I started and I stopped in 2002."

"Why did you stop?"

"Because my knees couldn't handle it anymore and I won everything you could possibly win, so I thought I give the young players their shot."

"Why did you come to America then? You could've coached handball."

"I know, I was offered quite a lot of coaching positions. But I got the call from the university and they offered me a teaching position. And I could get away from my father." Her face turned serious.

"Are you ever going to take that towel off?" He didn't want to ruin her good mood by getting her to think about her father.

"Why? Have you taken yours off?"

"Come under the covers and find out."

She did what she was told and not even 30 seconds later she straddled his lap.

"You have taken your towel off." She pressed down on him and was delighted when she felt his cock twitch. House opened her towel and together they got rid of it.

She started grinding her hips against his in a fast rhythm. His head fell back against the headboard and he gasped loudly. Annette worked his member up to his full hardness in no time. He couldn't remember the last time he had been so hard so fast.

They kissed showing each other their neediness. When they came up for air House dragged his lips down to her neck finding her soft spot right behind her ear.

She gasped in surprise, that he knew which spots to kiss. Her right arm left his neck and he could hear her opening a drawer. This was good, because he knew he wouldn't be able to hold out much longer.

"Condom now!" He gasped. God too close already and judging by her own moans and gasps she was well on the way too.

They both sighed in relief, when she finally rolled the condom on his member. She rested her hands on his shoulders and lifted herself up a bit and then slowly sunk down on his cock.

"Jesus!" He moaned and she gasped in response.

Annette established a fast rhythm rocking her hips back and forth, it felt like she was gonna kill him.

"So close." He managed to whisper her only response was to moan and she kept the fast rhythm.

House slipped his hand between their bodies and found her clit instantly and circled it with his thump. Her reaction was immediate, her eyes rolled back into her head arching her back which made him hit her sweet spot every time.

She cried out his name and came taking him with her over the edge. They slowed the rhythm down and rode out their orgasms. After a moment he squeezed her waist telling her there by to stop moving.

He held onto her tightly nuzzling his head into her neck while he was trying to get his breathing under control. He slipped out of her and she rolled the condom off him and wrapped it in a tissue. She stayed on his lap and he didn't mind one bit he liked feeling everything of her.

After a while she tried to get off him, but he tightened his hold on her. Annette lifted her head and smiled down on him, there was a new shine in her eyes he noticed. She leaned down and kissed his forehead then his nose and finally his lips.

House hugged her to him again and slowly turned them, so that they ended up lying on their sides facing each other.

"I still can't believe that my girlfriend is an Olympic gold medalist." He said after a while.

"Well honey, get used to it." She snuggled deeper into him and he could feel her smile which he returned.

They fell asleep entangled in each other.

**A/N: Yes the game of Handball really does exist and Denmark did win Olympic gold in 1996, 2000 and 2004! **


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N: Thank you for reading and putting this story on your alerts.**

It was a month later when House sat in his office. He had just sent his team off to get a MRI for the patient, it was the first quite moment he had all to himself that day.

The past month had been great House and Annette had been moving forward together. He had been spending more time at her apartment and more of half his stuff seemed to find their way over there too. He had been helping her finding a new apartment, she had finally saved enough money to rent a new place and some furniture.

And last week they had found the really perfect apartment it was a two-bedroom apartment with seaside view and it was close to work, it really was just perfect, but the problem was that the apartment wasn't up for rent only buy. And Annette didn't have enough money for that. So he had been toying with the idea of buying it together, but he knew that it probably was too soon.

But he had realized that he wanted to live with this woman, he was head over heels in love with her and seemed to crave her company like no one else he had ever met.

House figured he should probably talk to somebody about this, he needed an outsiders view, but he had no idea who to ask.

Wilson was out of the picture he rarely had time for him, because some weeks ago he had started dating his first ex-wife, a relationship House already had deemed to fail.

The other person he could ask was Cuddy, but she had kept their relationship strictly professional. He had tried to break her but it seemed nothing of his insaneness did work, she just ignored him.

He could ask Nolan, but he found that he would much rather ask somebody who knew him a little longer than a year.

House was snapped out of his musings, when he heard a pair of heals click their way towards him.

"House I need to talk to you." Cuddy said and looked at him with a cold expression, which he hated.

"Whatever it is, I didn't do it."

"I need you to speak at a conference in LA they wanna open a diagnostic department, so you need to talk about what it is you do."

House groaned he hated public speaking. He wasn't good at it and after his speech people always had annoying questions.

"Why? Can't I just send them a mail and explain."

"No, you're going whether you like it or not." Cuddy turned and was about to walk out of his office.

"Why are you acting like a cold bitch towards me?" He said getting straight to the point.

"What?"

"Ever since I found out about you and Lucas you've been acting like this coldhearted bitch that doesn't give a crap about the people who once were closest to her." He stared at her hoping that he had cracked some of the hard shell he knew she had around her.

"No I haven't." Apparently getting straight to the point wasn't enough.

"Yes you have! It's like you're this hormonal energizer bunny… God, you're not pregnant, are you?"

Cuddy's eyes went wide and for a minute there he actually thought that she really was pregnant, but then he saw the anger flashing across her face and he knew, he was in for some yelling and screaming.

"Screw you House. Not everything is about you! I'm fed up with you trying to figure everything out and then throwing it in other people's faces. Why can't you just let this go and let me get through this alone! I don't need you or Wilson to fix this!" By now her face was bright red with anger and there were unshed tears in her eyes.

And House was just confused, what the hell was she talking about? He hadn't been trying to fix anything.

"Okay Cuddles I think we've a major problem here, because I've no idea what the hell you're talking about and I told you I didn't do anything." He stepped closer to her looking her in the eyes hoping she would see that he was telling the truth.

She seemed to get it as she was shaking slightly and began to sob and bury her head in her hands.

"Come on sit down, I can't catch you if you fall." He led her to his Eames chair and pushed her gently into it and this time he sat on the footstool.

"Now what's wrong?"

Cuddy fiddled with her fingers in her lap and he let her think about how to tell him, he knew eventually she would talk to him.

"Well um I…" Finally she looked up at him and the sadness in her eyes was heartbreaking "Lucas and I, it's not going so well. He's rarely home and when he is all he does is sleep and he's gone again when I come home. We don't talk to each other anymore. I think the only reason I'm staying with him is, because he is great with Rachel." House nodded, he understood. Rachel looked like she was having a great time with Lucas at the conference two months ago.

"Why would you stay with him, if you're miserable? You'll end up like me." House smiled.

"You're not miserable anymore. I've seen you with Annette, you look happy together." House rolled his eyes which made her smile. She also looked relieved to get some of her worries off her chest.

"You know what I mean. Dump Lucas and enjoy the extra time you have with the munchkin again." Cuddy nodded.

"And do it soon, so that you're just a bossy bitch and not a bossy heartless bitch." House added as an afterthought.

Cuddy chuckled and was about to leave his office when she nearly collided with an out of breath Wilson.

"The cardio wing is downstairs, take your heart attack with you." House said as Wilson tried to breathe normal again so he could talk.

"It's Annette…" House's blood drained from his face "She has been brought to the ER."


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N: Thank you for the lovely reviews! Enjoy the next chapter…**

"What happened?" Cuddy asked. House was already on his way to the elevator, not even bothering with asking what had happened.

"I'm not sure, as soon as I saw her I rushed up here." She could see by Wilson's expression that it wasn't good.

House didn't even wait for them at the elevator, he stepped into it as soon as the doors opened. His eyes were big and he looked like a lost little boy. Thoughts kept flashing to him, what if she already was dead? He didn't even have the chance to say goodbye and that he loved her. No, he had to stop this negative thinking. Everything was going to be okay.

The elevator stopped on the second floor and a couple of people got off and two entered the elevator "Hurry God-dammit! Don't have all day." He barked.

Finally the elevator stopped on the ground floor, everybody let House get out first, wondering why the grumpy doctor was in such a hurry.

House reached the ER, Wilson and Cuddy already there and waving him over. He was surprised that they didn't look so worried anymore. House's heart on the other hand was still hammering in his chest.

As he reached the curtained area he could see why they were relieved. Annette was sitting on the hospital bed talking with a woman standing next to her while a doctor was stitching up a wound on her right wrist.

"What happened?" He asked still slightly out of breath from rushing down to the ER.

Annette looked at him and then looked down again. "She fainted, because she hadn't eaten anything all day." The still unknown woman explained.

House released a sigh. God he was relieved, he knew why she wasn't eating. "I told you to eat something this morning." He scolded gently while limping over to the bed and taking a seat next to her. He wanted to reach out to her, but Annette still needed to explain how she got the wound on her wrist.

"So who the hell are you?" He asked the woman.

"I'm Karen Miller my office is next to Annette's." House nodded "So you're Greg? It was me who dragged Annette to that speed date event."

"Right! I remember you." Wilson suddenly piped up "You were the woman who lost her cat to cancer."

House ignored them, instead he tried to get Annette to look at him, but she could be very stubborn.

"It's alright let me finish that." He said to the doctor who looked oddly relieved to get away from House.

"Can you give us a minute?" He asked Karen, Wilson and Cuddy. They nodded and left them alone.

He touched her wrist gently looking if the other doctor had done a good job, which he knew he had, but he needed time to think about how to broach the subject without his usual rudeness.

"How did you cut your wrist?"

"When I fainted, I had a glass of water in my hand and it shattered when I fell and I landed on it." She mumbled quietly still not looking at him. He closed the wound off and then ran his fingertips down to the center of her palm.

"I'm sorry that I didn't eat anything today." She said and finally looked up at him. He could see that she was about to cry.

"Hey… it's okay." He stood up and opened his arms for her "I'm not mad." He said softly. Annette slowly stepped closer to him, he hugged her to him inhaling her sweet vanilla scent which had become so used to the last month.

"It's okay, babe." He whispered softly when he felt tears hitting his neck. House gently ran his hands across her back trying everything in his power to calm her down.

He also needed to feel her close to him again, the thought alone that he could've lost her made his heart start beating faster again.

"I'm sorry." She said again, but he knew this time she apologized for her tears.

"It's alright that's just the shock." He answered still running his hands along her spine. They stood holding each other until Annette was totally relaxed in his arms.

Then suddenly the curtains were ripped open "I'm sorry House we need the space." The ER attending said.

"Come on I'll drive you home. We need to talk about something." She looked up at him in a mixture of confusion and fear.

"Don't worry I'm not breaking up with you." She squeezed his hand in relief.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

20 minutes later they entered Annette's apartment.

"You take a seat." He pointed to the couch "I'll get you some water."

Annette found it a little amusing that he felt so at home at her place, but then again she couldn't blame him they spend most of their time together at her place anyway.

"Here" He placed the glass on the coffee table and took a seat next to it.

"So… Why didn't you eat anything today?" He wanted to start slowly, so that he could keep his and her yelling to a minimum.

"I didn't have time." House could already see the stubbornness lurking in the back of her eyes.

"Why?"

"You know why, I rushed past you this morning because I had back to back lectures."

"Right, I remember. Do _you _remember what I shouted to you before you slammed the door shut on your way out?"

She nodded and looked down at her hands "You said, you need to eat something."

"And when I say something, it's usually right." He said softly and hoping that it didn't sound too bossy.

"When I was a student I often didn't eat all day and I was fine." She hoped that this was a good enough excuse.

"You're not in your twenties anymore. Your body needs the energy it gets from food and drinks. So you've to remember to eat and drink."

"I know." She looked up at him "I guess the stress didn't help much either, because that why I forgot."

House was stunned she knew what the problem was all along "Yeah, you need to cut back or you're gonna end up in the ER again. God, I was so worried when Wilson said you were in the hospital." House stood up pacing the room

It tore her apart seeing him like this, she knew it was hard for him showing his emotions.

Annette stood up and stopped him from pacing by standing in front of him "It's okay, nothing happened to me." She placed her hands on his chest.

"Something worse could've happened. I mean you could've been in a car or walking across the street and been run-" She silenced him with a soul-searing kiss which took his breath away by the emotion it held.

"I'm okay." She repeated in a whisper.

House nodded and hugged her to him as tightly as he could without crushing her too much.

"Even though I've only known you for a little more than a month, I don't know how I would've coped if you weren't here anymore."

He looked at her and swept a stray curl off her face behind her ear. "I didn't think I would fall for a woman again." He said and touched his forehead with hers. House closed his eyes, he was ready to whisper those immortal words he knew he felt halfway through their first date not so many days ago.

He released a breath and swallowed his pride "I love you…" He whispered and buried his face in her neck inhaling that reassuring vanilla scent.

Annette squeezed him even closer to her and waited for him to lift his head off her shoulder. When he finally did she gave him a dazzling smile "Jeg elsker dig." She said with tears in her eyes. House had an idea what that meant, but waited for her to translate and smiled when she said "I love you too…"

It didn't take long for them to head to the bedroom.


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N: Thank you for reading and staying with the story... Enjoy!**

House woke up to the ringing of his cell phone and he couldn't reach it. He was lying on his stomach and Annette was lying on top of him. The only part she hadn't covered with her body was his right leg. It amazed him that even in her sleep she was careful not to hurt his thigh.

"Are you gonna answer that?" She mumbled.

"How? There's something heavy on top of me." She smacked his ass and rolled off his body.

"Mmmh, I like it rough."

"Just answer your damn phone." She tried to say it coldly, but he could see the smile she was trying to hide.

"House" He answered the phone.

"How's Annette doing?" Cuddy's voice greeted him.

"Basking in the afterglow of our glorious – Ow!" Annette smacked him again, but this time on the back of his head and he could hear Cuddy chuckling in his ear.

"She's fine."

"Good, because you need to get back to the hospital, your patient just crashed." House groaned, he really didn't want to leave, not after the day he just had. Damn patient!

"Alright… Wait a minute, why isn't my team calling me?" He asked while leaning back against the headboard and Annette snuggled into his side resting her hand on his chest.

"They thought you would yell at them, so they left that part to me."

"That was nice of them."

"Yeah, I thought so too. So anyway get to the hospital." And with that she hung up the phone.

"Do you have to get back to work?"

"Unfortunately yes, are you gonna be okay?" He ran his hand along her spine settling it on the small of her back.

"Yeah I'll be fine. I'm just gonna stay in this bed while you go back to work." She smiled smugly.

House sighed "Alright that's it, staying right here." He dropped his pants and pinned her to the bed.

"What about your patient?"

"Screw the patient. I hired a team for a reason!" And with that said he attacked her neck with sloppy wet kisses making her laugh when his stubble tickled her sensitive skin.

House smiled down at her and then they nearly fell off the bed when she rolled them over and settled on top of him.

She leaned down to kiss him and House held onto her head holding her in front of him kissing the life out of her. But apparently she had other ideas as the ended the kiss at little too soon for his liking. Annette kissed her way down his body, now that was interesting maybe she had a better ending in mind. He hissed when she flicked his nipples with her tongue and then bit quite hard on them, but then kissed the pain away.

She continued her journey down his body and nuzzled his stomach and showered it with kisses.

Finally she reached his cock and House thought he was going to explode right then and there when she blew on the tip.

Then she licked the tip tasting his pre-cume and he groaned loudly. There was nothing sexier than watching a gorgeous woman with your cock in her mouth.

When Annette closed her mouth she brought her hands to his inner thighs circling her thumps against his skin. She bobbed her head up and down in a fast rhythm driving him wild and House thought he was done when she scraped her fingernails along his inner thighs.

She moaned against his member when she felt him get even harder and she knew that he was very close.

He started to slowly thrust into her mouth hitting the back of her throat. Annette moaned one last time and kept the fast rhythm going. House came hard groaning her name in pleasure. She swallowed everything he had to give.

She smiled and kissed her way up his body again. He was still breathing heavily, but he met her eyes and she had never seen a happier look in his eyes.

"That was amazing. You are amazing." He said gasping after every word.

"Thank you. Now go to work." She kissed him on the lips and went to the bathroom.

House sat up and looked at the bathroom door with wide eyes "You used me!" He yelled.

"Yeah"

"You should do that more often." He could hear her giggling.

House sighed, he should probably go before Cuddy called again.

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20 minutes later House entered the lobby singing _highway to hell _as he passed by Cuddy, who handed him the updated patient file with a smile.

"So judging by the spring in your step and you singing, I'm guessing everything is fine." Her smile widening.

House just nodded opened the file and waited for the elevator. Thank God for his stubble although he was sure that Cuddy could see a hint of redness on his cheeks.

"So the patient crashed, because she was allergic to the antibiotics. Mmmh that's weird." He looked up expecting to see Cuddy but she was already gone.

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Meanwhile Annette was bored out of her mind. It was so quite when Greg wasn't here. It was funny how fast she got used to having him around and how much she missed him when he wasn't here.

Annette walked to the living room seeing his backpack next to his helmet, which was weird, how did he get to the hospital? And that's when she noticed that her car keys were missing. That jerk, where did he think she would go?

She wouldn't go back to work. No, she had learned her lesson, she was done with giving as many lectures as she could. Maybe she could take a break for a little longer than a couple of days? Enjoy more than a few hours a day together with Greg.

But first she had to get back at him for taking her car keys. She noticed his PSP sticking out of the front pocket of his backpack. How hard could it be to beat all of his high scores?

It certainly would help with the boredom.


	21. Chapter 21

**A/N: Thank you for the reviews, keep 'em coming!**

3 days later House returned home after another boring day at work. He had diagnosed his last patient two days ago and hadn't had a new patient since then.

Annette had planned on staying at home for the rest of the week. And it looked like she was sticking to her plan, which was surprising. He had expected her to go back to work as soon as possible.

House used the key she had given him 3 days ago, after he had returned with her car keys. He had expected her to be very angry at him then, but instead she had given him a key.

As he entered he saw her talking on the phone. When she noticed him she smiled and waved. Normally she gave him a kiss, but that smile was okay too. She turned back to her conversation and he could hear that it wasn't in English, she was probably talking to family.

He went to the bathroom to shower off the hospital smell. When he entered the living room again she was still on the phone. All House could do was shake his head, he never understood how women could talk about everything and nothing on the phone.

House took a seat next to her and immediately she snuggled into his site, resting her hand his thigh rubbing it gently. It had taken him a while to get used to letting her do that without tensing. But now it was a daily routine he enjoyed very much. It made him realize that not all change is bad.

Finally she hung up the phone "Who was that?" His curiosity getting the better of him.

"Oh that was my brother. It's Sophie's birthday today, so I did my auntie duties and wished her a happy birthday."

House nodded wrapping his arms around her, it often amazed him how much he seemed to crave the contact and very often it was him who initiated the contact first.

"I told Thomas about you." She said.

"You did? What did he say?"

"I think he was surprised, he sounded happy though. But I'm sure he has a lot of questions when you meet him."

"What do you mean, when I meet him?"

She tensed and stopped rubbing his thigh "They are visiting for Christmas."

"What! But that's two weeks away."

"I know I'm sorry. But what was I suppose to say?"

"How about: No?" He knew he had done a big mistake saying that.

She looked up at him and he could see that he had hurt her deeply "I know that you don't talk to your family, but my brother is very important to me. How could you even say such a thing?"

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that."

"But you did!" She yelled and went to the bedroom slamming the door shut.

Why had he just said that? He knew Thomas was important to her. How could he fix it? The logical move would be to apologize, which he probably would end up doing anyway. But if he could find another way to fix this would be even better, plus he wasn't good at apologizing. Firstly though he should let her cool off, maybe she would come out of the bedroom on her own, but that was highly unlikely.

House needed a distraction, so he dug out his PSP. He noticed right away that something wasn't right, his favorite car and character had been swapped by a barely dressed female character driving a pink car. He smiled Annette had played his game the day he took her car keys.

As he finished the next level he took a look at the high scores, she had beaten nearly all of his. Incredible, it had only taken her a couple of hours, that's a year of hard work down the drain. Again she had surprised the hell out of him.

Two hours later House was still trying to beat her high scores, when he heard the bedroom door open. Annette stepped out, she looked terrible. The tear marks were still there, which tore him apart, because he was the one that had put them there.

"Are you coming to bed?"

He looked at her confused "I didn't think you'd want me to."

"I'm not saying that were okay. I've just been trying to get to sleep the last couple of hours and that doesn't happen unless you're next to me."

He looked even more confused "So now you just want me as your blanket?"

"Please?" Her eyes shining and lips pouting.

"Stop looking at me like that." She smiled knowing that he would cave. Annette turned and walked to the bedroom again.

When House entered the bedroom she was already lying under the covers "I'm gonna go get ready."

"Okay"

This was weird, he couldn't get in the bed lie next her and not say something, which probably would upset her even more. So when he crawled under the covers he stayed on his side, not quite knowing what to do.

"Did you buy me another pink toothbrush, because I could've sworn my toothbrush was orange last night?" He said hoping that he could break the ice, starting with a joke and hopefully end it with a kiss or another joke.

"I changed it. I'm still plotting against you for stealing my car keys." She mumbled her back still turned towards him. But he felt her foot gently sliding it up against his calf. He wanted to turn and hold her, but he wasn't sure she would let him. She had to set the tone.

"And thanks for beating all of my high scores. We should buy an Xbox, together we could beat those teenage couch potatoes in not time." Slowly she turned towards him, he guessed now was the time to apologize.

"I'm sorry about what I said. I know your family, especially your brother, is very important to you." He turned to his side and placed his hand on her waist.

She smiled and her hand wandered under his t-shirt gently scraping her nails against his back. "I know that you were just nervous to meet him, so you lashed out in panic."

"So why are you mad at me?" She kept smiling.

It didn't take long for him to find out what her plan was all along. "You just wanted me to apologize." Annette nodded and buried her head deeper against his chest, rubbing her nose against his t-shirt. "You evil bitch." He whispered and slapped her ass.

"Yep, still plotting against you." She smacked his ass in return.

"You know this means war right?"

"So you're okay with meeting my brother and his family?" She asked instead getting their talk back on track.

House sighed "Yes, I guess. I'm in this for the long haul and meeting the family is part of a committed relationship."

"Great we can go Christmas shopping tomorrow."

"Oh come on!" He groaned. House felt her chest shaking in laughter.


	22. Chapter 22

**A/N: Thank you for the reviews! And a big thanks for staying with this little story of mine… Anyway enjoy the next chapter!**

House entered the hospital lobby the next morning, hoping that Cuddy wouldn't see him, he was tired of working in the clinic all day. And he was successful, he made it to his office without running into her.

"Please tell me Cuddy gave you a case?" Foreman greeted him.

"You're starting to sound like a broken record." House returned.

He heard the door opening behind him and for a moment he thought it was Cuddy until he heard Wilson's voice.

"Cuddy called, saying that she's not coming in today and left me in charge."

Everybody looked at House, he a suspicion why she wasn't in today, but he was done making announcements from the balcony. "She's probably just doing some Christmas shopping. Speaking of which…" He limped to his office shutting the door behind him, although he knew Wilson would probably fallow him. And sure enough not ten seconds later the door opened again.

"What do you know?" He asked.

"I don't know anything, why don't you ask her yourself." He grumbled. If anyone should tell Wilson it should be Cuddy.

"I'll ask Cuddy later then." He mumbled disappointed that House wouldn't give him a juicy piece of gossip. "I wanted to talk to about something else, though…" Wilson scratched the back of his neck, which he only did when he was nervous. "Sam is moving in, so I want to move out."

House stopped searching for his Ipod and looked at Wilson. It actually wasn't that big a deal, he hadn't been back at the loft in quite a while, but if he moved out he had to eventually move his stuff back to his old apartment. Was he ready for that?

On the other hand he had seen Wilson and Sam together and his best friend looked happy. And he wanted Wilson to be happy, he had been through some tough times the last two years. First Amber's death and then House's time in Mayfield, which he knew, had been hard for Wilson too.

"House? Did you hear what I said?"

"Yeah, I did. I'll come get my stuff tonight."

"Okay" He could tell Wilson was still uncomfortable, so there was more he had to say. "Why don't you bring Annette with you? We could have dinner together."

Now it was House's turn to be nervous. He didn't exactly think highly of Sam, because of how she left things with Wilson at their divorce. Who the hell lets the lawyer deliver the divorce papers?

"I'll call Annette and let you know." House had a lot to think about.

As soon as Wilson left his office, he dug out his cell and dialed Annette's number.

"Hello?"

"Hey it's me. Question for you: Do you wanna have dinner with Wilson and his girlfriend Sam tonight?"

"Sounds great."

"No… You weren't supposed to say that."

"Sorry, couldn't see you winking through the phone. Why was I supposed to say no?"

"Because now we don't have a good enough reason for not going."

"Again sorry. I'm actually looking forward meeting the woman you keep referring to as the bitch."

"Yeah and now she is moving in with my idiot friend."

"Oh… That's why we're having dinner with them, so you can get your stuff."

"Yeah" He sighed deeply not really knowing how to handle the situation.

"Are you okay with that?"

"I have to be, don't I? Wilson has already made his decision."

"Just tell him you don't want to move out."

"I can't do that, did you not just hear what I said?"

"Stop deflecting… What's the real reason you don't want to move your stuff?"

House sighed again "Because if I tell him why I don't want to move he might get mad at me and I don't want that."

"That's not the real reason, you usually don't care if he gets mad." Annette was trying to get him to tell her, admitting the problem was always the first step.

Again he sighed, which made Annette smile "Because if I tell I thinks it's a bad idea to move in with Sam it's not gonna end well for me. I don't want to lose him. And I'm not sure I'm ready to go back to my apartment again." He added that last part in a whisper.

"Here's what you're gonna do: You're gonna get your things and we're gonna have dinner with them. And you're not going to lose Wilson."

She did reassure him a little bit "What about my apartment?"

"I'll be there with you… You're not alone anymore, remember?" The tone in her voice changed and he could tell she was smiling.

"Yeah…" Was all House could add to that "So I'll pick you up at 7, is that okay?"

"Yep that's fine. And don't worry so much."

"I don't worry." He denied.

"Yeah right."

"Whatever" He said and hung up the phone. Did he worry too much?


	23. Chapter 23

**A/N: Thanks for reading... **

House had just finished his clinic hours and it was now 5:30. He had realized while he was listening to the idiots that this was only their second real dinner date. So he decided to clean up nicely, showering in the locker room and putting on a new shirt and a pair of black slacks.

On his way out of the locker room he had another thought, but for that he needed to get into Wilson's locked office.

It didn't take long for him to break in, one of the last things Lucas had done for him, was to make a copy of Cuddy's central key for every door in the hospital. One more thing that showed how reliable and loyal Lucas really had been. Thank God Cuddy had finally dumped him.

After he had closed the door behind him, he limped to the desk opening all of the drawers, hoping that he could find the card of a florist. Yes, he was going to buy Annette some flowers. But he had no idea where the florist was, he knew though that Wilson had a card for all the flowers he had bought for his ex-wives throughout the years.

Ah, finally hidden in Wilson's calendar a card which said _Andy's flowers. _And just as House expected it was located very close to the hospital.

Now the next question was which flowers should he get? The tradition was of course roses, be he wasn't a traditional guy. It was something to think about on his way over to the florist.

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"Hello, I'm Andy. How can I help you?" Andy was a very tall, taller than House, with muscles bigger than bike wheels. Obviously he was full of steroids, House thought.

"I'm looking for some flowers for my date, but no roses." He could be very polite if he wanted to be and it did help when someone was as big as Andy.

"Ah, for that special someone in your life." Andy's smile and hand gestures confirmed his other suspicion though. He was as gay as they come.

They went along the shop with Andy explaining and showing the different kind of flowers, House did a pretty good job in ignoring the man taking a look around the shop for himself. And then he saw the perfect ones. They were daisies, but not the regular white and yellow ones, no these were pink and then turned white at the top. He didn't really know what made them so perfect for her, but he had made his decision, those were the flowers he was going to buy.

"I see you've made your choice, sir. The asteraceae, also known as the daisy. You've made a very wise choice as we all know aster means star in Greek…" as Andy babbled on House debated whether or not he should get a card.

"Would you like a card with the flowers, sir?"

"No thanks." House decided because he was giving Annette the flowers in person there was no need for a card.

After House had paid for the flowers it was time for him to drive to Annette's. He was getting nervous, which was silly, but it had been a while since he had bought flowers for a woman. He hoped she really liked it.

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Meanwhile Annette was putting the finishing touches of her make-up on, not that she was wearing much, just a touch of foundation and some red lipstick.

She had let her hair down and instead of straightening it left it curly, which she knew Greg liked very much. They had a very lively and funny discussion about why Annette should keep her hair curly instead of straight some weeks ago.

Annette had also chosen to wear a dark green dress running down just past her knees. Her whole outfit finished off with a pair of, as Greg would call them, do-me-pumps.

Just as she putting her cell in her purse there was a knock on the door. But not just any knock it was the sound of Greg's cane hitting her door. Weird, she thought he wouldn't have to knock he had a key.

When she opened the door, she was shocked to say the least. He was standing before her with a smug smile and wide eyes taking in what she was wearing.

He really cleaned up nicely. Greg was wearing a white pressed shirt, which was tucked into a well fitting pair of black slacks. But then she frowned, he was hiding something behind his back.

"We're not taking your bike, are we?"

She looked back up at him, his eyes were still trailing down her body finally stopping on her shoes. He seemed to like her outfit. "Greg?" She asked again.

His eyes trailed back up to her face again. She felt a little uncomfortable by the intensity of his eyes on her.

"Did you say something?" He smiled when he noticed her blush.

"Yes, are we taking the bike?" She pointed to the hand behind his back. House shook his head and showed her the flowers.

She gasped when she saw the daisies. "Wow" Was all she could say in a whisper. Annette took them slowly and smelled them while looking back up at him. And the look she gave him took his breath away. No one had ever looked at him with so much affection and love at the same time, not even Cameron.

It was a shame they had to be somewhere else, because right now he had something else in mind.

"These are beautiful." She said still in a whisper "Thank you."

He wanted to say something romantic, but was afraid to screw this perfect moment up by saying something stupid. So he just nodded.

She turned and he had to grab his cane very tightly to keep his balance. The dress exposed her back nicely. The length of her gorgeous curls, God he loved those curls, ending just at the middle of her shoulder blades. The rest of her back was for his viewing pleasure.

He saw her walking to the kitchen and he was finally ready to take a step into the apartment without tripping or falling over.

When she returned she had put the flowers in a vase. "Are you ready to go?"

"Yes" She sat the vase on the coffee table. When she wanted to get her coat from the closet he had already grabbed it for her.

"I'm going out with a gentleman tonight…" She said as he helped her into her coat.

"As soon as we get back here, there won't be much left of him." He said in a hoarse voice, which made her spine tingle. "You look stunning…" He whispered still standing behind her.

She turned and he looked surprised that he had let that last comment slip. "Thank you, you look quite dashing yourself." She gave him a kiss on the corner of his mouth.

He ignored her comment and instead said "We should get going." She knew that he doesn't deal well with compliments, but she could see something in his eyes.


	24. Chapter 24

**A/N: Thank you for reading the previous chapters. This is the long overdue update, sorry for letting you wait for so long… anyway enjoy **

30 minutes later they were standing in front of Wilson's loft ready to knock on the door. Or at least Annette was House seemed to be deep in thought.

So she took his hand and first when she gave it a squeezed it had the desired effect of bringing him out of his thoughts.

"Are you okay?" She was a little worried, she knew that he was concerned about Wilson.

"Yeah, it's just that this relationship seems to be very serious. So when it does end and trust me it will, because this is Wilson we're talking about… More often than not the relationship ends because the wife/girlfriend has a problem with me. And then Wilson hates me and he ignores me for a couple of months." He finished softly.

"Okay, but you're still friends he's always come back to you."

"Yeah, but what if the future ex-ex-wife number four is the charm?"

Annette cupped his cheek and he leaned into her touch "I can't really tell you that that's not gonna happen, but I _can_ promise you I'll be there for you if it does." She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him softly.

Just as House was about to deepen the kiss the door suddenly opened. "I can come back if you want to…" Wilson greeted them.

"We were just about to knock."

"Yeah I can see that." He let them in and took their coats. Wilson took in what they were wearing and looked at himself. For the first time since he's known House he felt slightly underdressed and he was still in his work clothes for crying out loud. "Anyway, dinner is ready I ordered Chinese."

"Why is it Christmas?"

"Well I thought-" House stopped listening as soon as Wilson answered. He let Annette do the listening while he limped further into the loft. He could already see the changes the new addition in Wilsons's life was doing, first of all there were a lot more useless knick-knacks in the living room than before. Then there were of course the women's magazines next to the medical journals on the coffee table. House dreaded to think what the bathrooms looked like.

The reason for all of this madness, Sam or the bitch as he preferred, was waiting for them at the table. He never understood what Wilson saw in her all those years ago. She looked older than Annette even though she was younger, the bags under her eyes just gave her away.

But he wasn't here to mock, even though he wanted to throw it in Wilson's face that his girlfriend was hotter.

"Hello House" Sam greeted him, he just nodded and then took a seat at the table where he was shortly joined by Annette. It gave him great pleasure that his gorgeous girlfriend didn't even offer to shake the other woman's hand.

House kept his mouth shut throughout the dinner, only opened it when somebody asked him a question directly. He was afraid of saying something wrong, so he spend most of the time caressing Annette's thigh under the table to calm his nerves.

When they finished the dinner all House wanted was to leave, but they still had to pack his stuff. "I'm gonna start packing." He said when everybody started to clean the table.

He entered his old room and was surprised that nothing had changed. Everything was just as he had left it, hurricane Sam hadn't taken over in here yet. Maybe Wilson had some balls after all, he thought as he pulled out a duffel bag from under the bed.

Just as he was about the put some t-shirts in it, Wilson entered carrying a big box.

"I figured the rest should fit in here." House nodded and packed the rest of his clothes. "Are you okay? You were very quite during dinner."

"Yeah, I'm fine."

An awkward silence filled the room, House kept packing while Wilson tried to figure out what the problem was.

"Okay, I give up what's wrong?" Wilson said when House closed the box, everything he had brought with him some months ago could fit into a duffel bag and a box. Was it weird that House felt a little pathetic?

"I said I was fine." House still hadn't decided if he wanted to tell Wilson.

"Okay, when you're ready to talk you know where to find me." He said and left House alone.

When House limped back to the living room, Sam was talking about some movie she and Wilson had seen. He smirked when he noticed Annette's bored expression.

Sam stopped talking when she saw him.

"I'm done…"

"Okay, are you ready to go?" Sam asked, hinting that she wanted them to leave. Clearly she didn't like him and Annette, which he was totally fine with.

"Yeah. I just need some help carrying the box down to the car."

Annette was already saying bye to Sam, obviously she wanted to get home fast as well. House only nodded to Sam again and went to their coats.

And so their double date with Sam and Wilson ended with House being proud of himself that he didn't tell Sam where she could go and that Wilson was a complete idiot. But he also had the nagging feeling that he and Wilson weren't as close as they used to be.


	25. Chapter 25

**A/N: I'm sorry that it took me a while to update this, but with the Easter-days and the Royal Wedding of course. So as you can see there wasn't much time for writing.**

**A special thanks to **_**Pyewacket75**__ (If you haven't read any of her stories yet I strongly recommend that you do!) _**and **_**Fanny-Wan Kenobi **_**for being the only two people who reviewed the previous chapter!**

**Anyway enough of my rambling here's the next chapter…**

They decided not to bring his stuff to his apartment, because it was late and House remembered there wasn't any power. He was gonna call the landlord tomorrow to tell him he was moving back in.

"How about we take a hot bath? My leg didn't exactly appreciate carrying the heavy bag." House said when they entered Annette's apartment.

"That sounds like a wonderful idea, I could use a bath myself."

"Yeah, you stink." He hurried to the bathroom, but he still felt the pillow which hit the back of his head. He keeps forgetting that his girlfriend doesn't throw like a girl or Wilson.

The rest of the night was spent enjoying the big bathtub and later they went to bed where House mentioned that he was afraid of how his friendship to Wilson had changed.

Annette surprised him once again with her honest answers which did reassure him a little bit, it also meant a lot to him that he had this magnificent woman in his life. He was very honored to have his arms around her and to feel her silk like skin, for him it was the greatest feeling he had ever experienced.

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The next day was luckily House's day off, but he didn't sleep in like he usually does. He got up at 9, right after Annette had left for her morning run.

He called Lady and told her to clean his apartment and have it finished by the afternoon. His landlord called to say the power was back on and if there should be some problems House should give him a call.

Annette joined him for lunch and at two Lady called him and said she was finished.

So here they were at two thirty, House had the key and with a shaky hand he put it in the lock.

He noticed right away that the place had been cleaned. House looked around this place had been his sanctuary for so many years, but now it didn't feel right anymore. There were just too many bad memories. He moved here after Stacy had left him and it had all gone downhill from there, with him eventually ending up in Mayfield.

He looked to his right as he watched Annette take in his apartment. Normally he would have hated all the snooping and inspecting, but it was only fair. He had been snooping around in her apartment for over a month.

As Annette stepped further into the living room, House limped to his bedroom to empty the duffle-bag. He was just about to put his shirts in the dresser when he felt Annette slip her hands around his waist hugging him close and kissing his neck.

"I like it here, it's very you." She whispered and he felt her smile against his neck.

"It used to be."

"What do you mean?"

"Well this place is how I used to be. Everything in here just shows how alone I've been." He turned to face her.

"So you're gonna sell your apartment?"

"Yeah, it just doesn't feel like home anymore." He looked deeply into her eyes, trying to find the answer to his next question. Were they both ready both ready for this? He had been ready for this a long time ago, probably two weeks after they had met.

Just as he was about to ask the question Annette beat him to it.

"Since we're both looking for a place, why don't we look for one together?" His eyes widened, maybe she was ready for this. "Only if you want to of course." She said taking his reaction as doubt.

"Okay"

The smile that stretched across her face was like nothing he had ever seen and he couldn't help but to return it with one of his own rare smiles.

"Are you sure you are ready for this? You haven't seen me on my worst days yet."

"Don't worry I'm a doctor, I know you women get bitchy once a month." Annette laughed and hugged him close burying her face in his neck, God how she loved his scent it was so calming.

"Do you think we find something before the end of the year?" She asked the excitement already in her voice.

"I doubt it. Alone the process of finding the right place and then signing the contracts can take up to a month."

"Whoa, we're getting a house?"

"Well we need a bedroom, guestroom and you need an office for your work. I just thought it would be easier if we get a house… and maybe something without any stairs." He tried to add that last part as a joke, because he could already see that she had something else in mind.

"I wanted to rent an apartment, I don't have enough money saved for a house." She stepped back from him and took a seat on the bed.

House knew that money and doing stuff on her own was important to her, so he had to be careful what he told her. He couldn't just tell her that he would pay, that's exactly how her father treated her. But he also had to come up with something, otherwise she would suggest that maybe they weren't ready to move in together.

He thought of all this while slowly limping towards the bed and took a seat next to her staring at the same wall.

"We could look at apartments and houses if you want?"

"But I don't have enough money for something for the both of us."

"That's okay. We use the money we get from selling my apartment and then we split the rest in half."

"But you'll still be paying more than me." She sighed and then she frowned "Do I really sound as pathetic as I think I do?"

"Yes you do."

She slapped his forearm "You're not helping…" She smiled nonetheless.

"Okay how about this then, we'll look at houses and apartments and when we find something then we'll worry about money."

"You're right we're talking about this like we've already bought a house."

"Now that we both agree can we get to the celebration part of this happy moment?"

Annette chuckled "What did you have in mind?" Like she didn't know already…


	26. Chapter 26

**A/N: Thanks to **_**Pyewacket75, Fanny-Wan Kenobi and Carlypso **_**for reviewing the last chapter.**

**I know it's a little short, but I wanted to update before the season finale…**

* * *

It was three days till Christmas Eve and he still hadn't bought her a gift. There was so much going on, that he hadn't had much time to think of something. But he realized that today might be his only chance to buy her a gift, because tomorrow her brother was arriving with his family. So he had better come up with something. Fast.

And as luck would have it, he heard clicking high heels walking their owner towards his office.

"Cuddy, just the one I've been looking for."

"No, you can't give your patient malaria." Was her response without thinking.

"That's old news… I need you opinion as a woman."

Cuddy sighed and took a seat on his desk chair since he was sitting in his Eames chair. "Let's get this over with." She mumbled.

"I need some Christmas gift ideas for Annette."

"Oh…" She said surprised. "Well jewelry is always a good choice."

"Okay, I can do that I guess. I want to get her something special though. By the way this conversation never leaves this office." He added as an afterthought when he noticed how girly he sounded.

"Well that's not something I can help you with, I don't know her that well. Maybe you should ask Wilson, he's met her."

"What good are you?" He mumbled as he got up and started packing his bag so he could head to the mall.

"See you tomorrow House."

"Why are you here anyway, I was a good boy today? I solved my case."

"I just wanted a patient update." She said already on her way out.

* * *

House was halfway to the jewelry store when he remembered that Annette didn't wear any kind of jewelry. Great, he thought, he was just as screwed as before. He needed to come up with something new again.

And that's when he saw it the new Playstation 3. Yes, he knew it wasn't something you would usually give to the woman in your life, but she was always playing with his PSP beating his high scores. They could have fun with this, he thought.

After he had spent a lot of money on the Playstation and 4 new games, he left the mall. He drove to his apartment so he could hide the gift.

House and Annette spent the last evening alone together eating take-out and making out on the couch like a couple of teenagers. They even spent the night on the couch, which to his surprise was very comfortable.

* * *

At 10:25 they waited at the airport terminal for her brother to show up.

"Moster Annette!" He could hear someone yell and two pair of feet running towards them.

They started talking in Danish, but House recognized them as Jamie and Sophie from the pictures he had seen. They hugged and talked in hushed voices clearly talking about him, because the next thing he sees is Sophie turning towards him.

"Hello my name is Sophie, what's yours?" He was ready to mock her, but then he saw the same gorgeous eyes as Annette's looking up at him. From that moment on he knew Sophie would have him wrapped around her finger. He was also a little nervous about meeting Annette's family.

"Hi I'm Greg." He noticed Jamie hiding shyly behind his aunt's body only his head visible. "And that floating head must be Jamie." That got a giggle from Sophie. So far so good, House thought.

"Well aren't you gonna say hi to the rest of us." A voice behind them said.

The voice belonged to her brother. He was in his mid-thirties and wearing a black suit. In some way he reminded House a bit of Wilson, he had that same boy wonder smile.

Annette rushed over to him immediately hugging and the talking in Danish started again. To be honest he felt a little left out.

"Don't mind them, they're always like this every time we're here." A voice to his left said, it belonged to Thomas' wife he presumed. "Hi I'm Victoria. You must be Greg, Annette has told us so many things about you."

She was in her mid-thirties just like her husband. Her skin was really tanned like she had spent hours lying directly next to the sun, her white sweater did nothing to hide that. She had beautiful blond hair and brown eyes. And he thought he could hear a hint of an Australian accent in her voice.

"Hi, nice to meet you." Yes, he was overdoing it a bit with the niceness, but he wanted Annette's family to like him, as strangely as that sounded.

"You don't speak Danish, do you?" House shook his head. "Thank God. The last we were here I spent most of my time talking about Bob 10, Spongebob Squarepants and that boy with the arrow painted on his head."

"Mum it's Ben 10." Sophie corrected while laughing, even Jamie couldn't hide his smile.

"Yes, and the cartoon with arrow boy is called Avatar I believe. And I happen to like Spongebob." House said.

"Really? Jamie show him your socks!" Sophie said while walking to stand right next to House.

Jamie lifted his jeans up a bit and showed him his yellow Spongebob socks.

"Awesome! Sadly they don't make them in my size."

"Oh my God there are three of them." Victoria said with a sigh.

"Moster Annette did you know Greg likes Spongebob?" Apparently Jamie wasn't so shy after all.

"Yes, he watches it every morning before he goes to work." Annette said with a smile. "Anyway, this is my brother Thomas."

"Hi, it's nice to finally meet the man that my sister can't stop talking about." His Danish accent wasn't as prominent as Annette's.

House looked over at Annette and was very amused when he saw her cheeks turn a delightful rosy color.

"Oh shut up!" She said to House. "I saw you blush when Wilson told me that you really like me."

**A/N: **_**Moster **_**means aunt in Danish.**


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